Helis, December 16, 2022 - Croatian Minister of Defense Mario Banožić along Republic of Croatia Armed Forces officials attended the reception of two Sikorsky UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters at Zagreb International Airport “Franjo Tuđman” on Saturday, December 3, 2022.
The program to supply the Croatian Armed Forces with Black Hawk helicopters began in December 2018 . Out of a total of four helicopters, first two were acquired via Foreign Military Sale (FMS) program and the last two were donated by the US Government.
Minister Banožić thanked the United States, as their most important strategic military partner, for the support that began through successful cooperation with the Minnesota National Guard and continued through numerous projects, including the procurement of these helicopters, but Kiowas and Bradley combat vehicles as well.
The minister added that most of UH-60M Croatian pilots now had about 200 flight hours which is an exceptional fact considering that they started putting the helicopters into operational service at the beginning of May 2022.
The Croatian Air Force will continue with the process of replacing Soviet-era helicopters with Western ones. “Russian-made spare parts are a problem” the minister added.
The goal of the Ministry of Defense is to continue receiving Black Hawk helicopters with the hopes that Croatia can have 12 of them.
“We want to acquire eight more Black Hawk helicopters,” he concluded.
The Black Hawks will enable interoperability with US and NATO forces in various missions.
The program to supply the Croatian Armed Forces with Black Hawk helicopters began in December 2018 . Out of a total of four helicopters, first two were acquired via Foreign Military Sale (FMS) program and the last two were donated by the US Government.
Minister Banožić thanked the United States, as their most important strategic military partner, for the support that began through successful cooperation with the Minnesota National Guard and continued through numerous projects, including the procurement of these helicopters, but Kiowas and Bradley combat vehicles as well.
The minister added that most of UH-60M Croatian pilots now had about 200 flight hours which is an exceptional fact considering that they started putting the helicopters into operational service at the beginning of May 2022.
The Croatian Air Force will continue with the process of replacing Soviet-era helicopters with Western ones. “Russian-made spare parts are a problem” the minister added.
The goal of the Ministry of Defense is to continue receiving Black Hawk helicopters with the hopes that Croatia can have 12 of them.
“We want to acquire eight more Black Hawk helicopters,” he concluded.
The Black Hawks will enable interoperability with US and NATO forces in various missions.
UH-60M Black Hawk 232 233 ( Hrvatsko ratno zrakoplovstvo )
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UH-60M Black Hawk in
Hrvatsko ratno zrakoplovstvo 
