PEKING -- The People's Liberation Army has taken delivery of the last of 24 American helicopters in $150 million deal described as the first Chinese purchase of U.S. equipment with obvious military applications, officials said Monday.
A spokesman for United Technologies Corp. in Peking said the last four Sikorsky S70C Blackhawk helicopters bought by China under a July 1984 contract were turned over to the PLA last month.
He said the 24 helicopters were assigned to three of the PLA's seven regional military commands and are currently being used in Peking, Tibet, central Sichuan Province and in northwestern Xinjiang Province.
Sikorsky, a division of United Technologies, and the Chinese government played down the aircraft's potential military applications when the first three helicopters were delivered in November 1984 at a Peking ceremony attended by former Secretary of State Alexander Haig.
Announcements at the time said the 18-passenger helicopters were bought by two Chinese civilian agencies, but did not say who would be using them. But Western sources familiar with the transaction said it represented the first Chinese purchase of U.S. equipment that had obvious military applications.
The official Peking Review magazine confirmed in its latest issue released Monday that the helicopters were delivered to the PLA, but gave no further details.
The United Technologies official described the helicopters as 'the standard U.S. Army Blackhawk,' but with civilian radio equipment and avionics.
He said the Chinese have indicated they are interested in buying more S70Cs, which are built in Stratford, Conn.
Western sources familiar with the sale said the aircraft bought by the Chinese do not have the armor plating, armament systems, radar-jamming devices and some other military technology found on the Blackhawk, which was used in the 1983 U.S. invasion of Grenada. But one aviation expert said earlier there was nothing to stop the Chinese from making their own modifications should they want to put the aircraft to military use.
The Sikorsky sale had to be approved by the Munitions Control Office of the U.S. State Department and the Paris-based Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls, which monitors strategic exports by Western nations to communist countries.
Four of the helicopters are now being used for rescue work at altitudes of up to 21,000 feet in mountainous Tibet and Qinghai provinces, which have been hit by severe blizzards since late October, the United Technologies spokesman said.
