Fri, Sep 25, 2009
Eurocopter Claims 75% Of UK And Irish Police Helos
At this year’s Helitech, Eurocopter UK
announced the order of a new EC135 for West Midlands Police Air
Support Unit. Eurocopter will provide, at short notice, a fully
equipped EC135 police helicopter, featuring the well-known mission
pod, to take over the duties of the West Midlands EC135 destroyed
by fire in a recent arson attack until the new aircraft is
delivered in summer 2010.
Eurocopter’s Static display at Helitech features one of
the Metropolitan Police Air Support Unit’s three EC145s, and
the brand new EC135P2i of the Suffolk Police. These two aircraft
represent the state-of-the-art generation of helicopters most
frequently selected by UK Police Forces. Today, Eurocopter holds
75% of the existing UK and Ireland police air support market and
reinforces its presence with eight more police helicopters to be
delivered within the next two years.
The Suffolk Police EC135 was delivered in June this year and is
the first out of six awarded to Eurocopter through the Police
Consortium Tender in 2008. It has become an outstanding product
created in an intensive dialogue with the end user and based on the
Eurocopter UK’s:
- Long experience in police mission system design and
integration.
- Deep understanding of the helicopter platform.
- Many years of in-service feedback as well as the extract of
Eurocopter’s vast experience with police and homeland
security customers in Continental Europe.
EC135 Police Helicopter
Since entry into service, the Suffolk Police helicopter has
already logged 200 flight hours. Helicopters #2 and #3 out of the
Police Consortium Tender for the Central County and Cheshire Police
Air Support Units are already nearing completion at the Eurocopter
UK premises in Oxford.
The London “Met” was the first UK police service to
put the EC145 into service in 2007. Fitted with the most advanced
mission equipment, the EC145 marks a new era in Police Air Support
in the United Kingdom. It serves as a key tool in the vigilance
against terrorism and adds a new dimension in terms of multi-role
capability and lift capacity in the 3.6 ton class. Two new EC145s
are on order by the Devon & Cornwall Police and by the Police
Services of Northern Ireland; in the latter case, it will
complement an EC135 already in service in Belfast.
Markus Steinke, Managing Director of Eurocopter UK, stated,
“Combining the characteristics of a helicopter with the
specifics of a variety of complex mission systems in order to
create a reliable, high performing, easy to use and easy to
maintain, flying mission platform for the end user, is a unique
capability which only very few entities in the UK really master. We
are proud to be the leader in this segment – established over
many years together with our police customers”.
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