Philippine Navy's Naval Air Group receives 2nd Robinson R-22 Training Helicopter

A small success is still a success, and every small success in the Armed Forces of the Philippines' effort to modernize, MaxDefense Philippines tries to cover it.

We received information from reliable community members / contributors that the Philippine Navy's Naval Air Group (PN-NAG) already received its second Robinson R-22 training helicopter, which the service has been trying to acquire since 2014. MaxDefense Philippines posted about this acquisition on our Facebook community page on January 2015. The Approved Budget for Contract (ABC) for the project was Php 19.5 million. If the project was completed via tender, we expect the contract price to be lower than the ABC. It is still unknown who won the contract, or if the Philippine Navy was able to acquire it directly from the manufacturer, Robinson Helicopters.

Finally, we now have a photo of the second Robinson R22 helicopter of the PN-NAG, courtesy of one of our contributor community members who wish to remain anonymous. The photo was posted on the International Plastic Modelers Society (IPMS) Philippines - Bert Anido group.

As far as MaxDefense knows, the bidding for the project took a long time due to bid failures, thanks to the lack of flexibility of the Philippine government's procurement process as dictated by Republic Act 9184.

The helicopter, with tail number PNH-423, was reported as painted white as opposed to the earlier R-22 helicopter of the Philippine Navy which is painted with the old blue paint scheme of the the Naval Air Group, although MaxDefense expects that the older R-22 could also be sporting a different paint scheme by now since the NAG started changing the paint scheme of its assets, including the remaining BO-105 and N-22B Islanders, which were spotted as sporting a grey and black paint scheme very similar to those used by the newer AgustaWestland AW-109E Power naval helicopters.

As small as the helicopter can be, this enables the Philippine Navy to train its corps of pilots on basic helicopter operations before moving up the ladder on the larger BO-105 and AW-109. It has a very affordable purchase price, easy to maintain and operate, and is budget friendly for such purpose.

The PN-NAG's first Robinson R-22 helicopter, with tail number PNH-421, as seen in the original blue paint scheme applied on the PN-NAG air assets before they started using a new grey-black paint scheme. 

Currently we do not have a photo available but we are hoping that community members who has one might be able to share at least one for proof of existence, especially for people who do not trust our sources.

Edit (23/03/17): Thanks to one of our community member contributor, who wish to remain anonymous, we now have a photo of the PN-NAG's second Robinson R22 helicopter PNH-423.

Anyway, MaxDefense welcomes this new addition to the Philippine Navy's Naval Air Group. Cheers!