Albania Receives First Batch of Black Hawk Helicopters with $50 Million U.S. Support

A United States C-17 arrived in Tirana today to deliver Albania’s first order of Black Hawk helicopters with the support of over $50 million in U.S. funding assistance. The new helicopters will help bolster Albania’s rotary wing capabilities and the ability to conduct medical evacuation, personnel recovery, search and rescue missions, and support logistics movements for operations and exercises.

The helicopters are part of a U.S. aid package to one of NATO's smallest allies, which has been phasing out its entire fleet of military aircraft of Chinese and Soviet origin inherited from the communist dictatorship era. Since then, Albania has only managed to rebuild a small fleet of veteran helicopters donated by Germany and Italy, to which four AS532AL Cougars and two H145Ms were added in recent years.

NATO is investing over 50 million euros to renovate and operationalize the Kuçova air base, which will be the first Albanian air base enabled for NATO use. Through a contract, the U.S. Army is expected to train Albanian pilots and maintain the helicopters. Additionally, the U.S. has provided Albania with several 4x4 Humvees and MRAPs.

Albania's graveyard of MiGs to become NATO air base

Long the graveyard of its once mighty air force, Albania’s base at Kucova is set to become a NATO station - to the delight of its former airmen longing to hear the engines roar again.
Albania retired its 224 Soviet- and Chinese-made MiGs in 2005, and since 2009 NATO neighbors Italy and Greece monitor its airspace. That led to economic decline in and around Kucova, which was called “Stalin City” during the era of Communist rule.
NATO will spend over 50 million euros ($58 million) on the first stage of work to turn Kucova into a support base for supplies, logistics, training and drills, Xhacka said.
Albania feels it has earned such a transformation at the base for helping maintain stability in the Balkans and contributing to NATO peacekeeping missions around the world.
reuters

Albania receives final Cougar helicopter

Albania has received its fourth and final Airbus AS 532AL Cougar.
The country originally ordered the Cougar helicopters for the Albanian Air Brigade in December 2009, with the fourth aircraft being delivered in a troop transport configuration.
Albania joined NATO in 2009, and has been making efforts to replace older Soviet-designed equipment..
The 2009 deal, worth EUR78.6 million (USD102.7 million), was for five Cougars in four different configurations: two troop transports, one medical evacuation (medevac), one search and rescue (SAR), and one VIP transportation helicopter.
The VIP transport configured Cougar was originally planned to be the first delivered to Albania. However it crashed during a test flight in July 2012, killing all six on board. Albania however opted not to receive another VIP Cougar in its place, choosing instead to receive two EC145 light twin-engine light-utility helicopters in a disaster management configuration. These two EC145 helicopters are expected to be delivered to Albania in the second half of 2015.
janes

British and Albanian navies work together in the Adriatic

A major two-week exercise involving British and Albanian naval forces in the western Balkans ended with Albania's President, His Excellency Mr Bujar Nishani, visiting HMS Illustrious.

mod.uk

ALBANIA COMPRA 5 COUGAR AS532/ALBANIA BUYING 5 AS532 COUGAR

Según Reuters, Albania va a adquirir 5 Eurocopters AS532 COUGAR por 78 millones de Euros para modernizar su flota a los standard de la OTAN, a la que se unió en Abril de 2009. El parlamento aprobará la compra el próximo once de febrero, urgido por el ministro de Defensa, que solicitó la compra para sustituir a la anticuada flota actual de helicópteros de fabricación soviética y China y que data de los años 60 y 70. Según medios oficiales, la aprobación de la compra es indispensable, debido a la importancia de la flota de helicópteros para las Fuerzas Armadas Albanesas, y es una de la compras mas importantes realizadas en los úlitmos años. El AS 532 AL Cougar es una versión militar del Super PUMA, para uso como transporte, SAR, y transporte VIP.
La flota albanesa se compone de helicópteros de fabricación China y Soviética fabricados en los años 1965-1970, y están limitados técnica y operacionalmente, así como anticuados, no pudiendo volar de noche, ni operar conjuntamente con otras fuerzas de la OTAN. En 2005, fue paralizada la flota de MIG y MIG 21, estando en un futuro la Fuerza Aérea Albanesa compuesta por un gran número de helicópteros, que es lo que mejor se adapta a la montañosa orografía de la zona.
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According Reuters, Albania is going to buy 5 Eurocopters AS532 COUGAR for 78 mln euros over four years to upgrade its fleet to the standards of NATO, which it joined in April last year. Parliament is set to approve the contract late on Thursday after the Defence Ministry asked that it speed up the approval to replace its Soviet and Chinese-made helicopter fleet that dates back to the 1960s. According officials, "The approval of this contract by parliament is absolutely indispensable because the helicopter fleet is an important asset at the national level," the government asked parliament in a report seen by Reuters. "For the armed forces, this will be probably for a long time the project of the biggest financial value."
AS 532 AL Cougar is one of the military versions of the Super PUMA helicopters, for use in its military, search and rescue operations and the transport of VIPs.
Albania's fleet consists of Soviet and Chinese single-engine helicopters produced in 1965-1970 that have limited operational and technical qualities, cannot fly at night and cannot operate with NATO forces.
As soon as the ruling Democratic Party of Prime Minister Sali Berisha came to power in 2005, it grounded the air force's fleet of airplanes, including the cigar-shaped MIG 19 and MIG 21 fighter jets. Albania's future air fleet is largely to consist of helicopters because they are suitable to its mountainous terrain.