The latest country to purchase the Sikorsky S-70A Black Hawk helicopters is Chile. The Chilean Air Force is this week accepting its first such aircraft at Stratford, Connecticut--the first step in a plan to replace its current UH-1 Huey fleet with Black Hawks. It will be buying a fleet over the next few years, a contract which follows delivery to Israel over recent months of 15 S-70A-50s for the IAF.

The Chinese Air Force has also recently received four S-70C-6 Black Hawks, for search and rescue duties. They have sophisticated avionics and enhanced mission equipment to give them all-weather and night SAR capabilities.

Including naval derivatives, more than 2,400 S-70s are in service or have now been ordered by no fewer that 24 export countries, ranging alphabetically from Argentina to Turkey.