7 News Belize

2016: The Year Of The Chopper
posted (January 13, 2016)

The BDF will take to the skies a whole lot in 2016 – and they will do so in their own choppers. That's right, we said "choppers" – as in more than one. Today in a press briefing about the plans for the year ahead, Commander General David Jones said two military type helicopters will be coming in on Monday:…

Brig. Gen. David Jones - Commander, BDF

"Helicopter training will be a big thing for us this year because we expect to get in the other two UH-1H helicopters actually on Monday; coming Monday those two helicopters are expected to be in Belize. We will finalize between two contractors we are looking at now to decide which one of them will provide the helicopter training for our pilots. We already have the Bel, so this year 2016 we expect to have three helicopters up and running."

Jones said having the helicopters will enable soldiers to deploy quickly in hard to reach places, mainly along the western border with Guatemala, which is the site of many incursions. Presently, when the BDF sights an incursion or a milpa clearing – it takes days after that to actually get there – but with an arsenal of choppers, that should change:..

Brig. Gen. David Jones - Commander, BDF

"With the advent of receiving helicopters, we can deploy quickly and more efficiently to arrest situations that are happening along the border. Because sometimes when you do your area reconnaissance , the defender would pick up the clearing and then would report back to our headquarters but it's difficult to reach the area because it's a long walk, 3, 4 sometimes 5 days walk to the area of concern. If there is a clearing there, it's a matter of less than an hour or so we can deploy there in the air with a helicopter now and deal with the situation instead of waiting 4 or 5 days."

Government has approved a budget for maintenance, training, flying and repairs of choppers.

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