US approves sale of up to $8.5 billion in helicopters to Germany

The US State Department has approved the potential sale of as much as $8.5 billion in CH-47 Chinook helicopters, engines and equipment to Germany, which if it procceds could provide relief to Boeing Co. as the Army presses ahead with plans to shift its spending to other helicopter programs.

Germany wants to buy 60 of the CH-47F Block II cargo helicopters, as well as 140 of the T55-GA-714A engines produced by Honeywell International Inc. — 120 installed in the aircraft and 20 spares, the State Department said in a statement.

That would bolster Germany’s heavy-lift capability and enable the US ally “to strengthen its homeland defense and deter regional threats.”

The new equipment “will support the foreign policy and national security of the United States by improving the security of a NATO ally which is an important force for political and economic stability in Europe,” the State Department said, according to Bloomberg.

The sale must be approved by Congress.

The purchase would be welcome news for Boeing — and the suburban Philadelphia plant where the Chinook is made — amid a broader Army stance of cutting spending on Chinooks and other programs to help free up money for successors to the present helicopter fleet.

The sale could involve sending about 30 defense contractor employees to Germany to provide training, maintenance and logistics support for the aircraft for as many as five years, and of foreign liaison officers to the US Army’s Redstone Arsenal in Alabama and the Boeing facility in Philadelphia.

The Army grounded its entire fleet of 400 Chinooks last August over concerns their engines could catch fire. Most of the helicopters have since been returned to service after investigators replaced non-compliant O-ring engine gaskets — used to prevent leaks of fluid or gas — that had been found in the aircraft.