A U.S. Chinook helicopter passes by during a joint military exercise called “Balikatan”, Tagalog for shoulder-to-shoulder, at Capas, Tarlac province, northern Philippines, on April 14, 2023. (Aaron Favila/AP Photo)

WASHINGTON—The Biden administration on Thursday approved an $8.5 billion sale of Chinook helicopters to NATO ally Germany.

The approval comes as the war in Ukraine continues to tax the military stocks of Western countries but is not directly related to the conflict.

The State Department said it had notified Congress that the United States would sell Germany 60 Chinooks along with engines and associated spare parts, including missile warning systems.

The Chinook is the Army’s key heavy-lift helicopter, used to transport troops and equipment, and was a familiar sight in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Chinooks were the aircraft used to evacuate U.S. embassy personnel from Sudan in April.

The sale is meant to boost Germany’s heavy lift military capability and “deter regional threats,” the department said. The helicopters are not intended to be used in Ukraine.

“This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security of the United States by improving the security of a NATO ally which is an important force for political and economic stability in Europe,” it said.

U.S. Marines direct a Chinook helicopter arriving to pick up a container with supplies at Forward Operating Base Edi in the Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan on June 9, 2011. (Anja Niedringhaus/AP Photo)