Fri, Apr 02, 2010
First Of Three Helicopters To Be Assigned To Outer EU Border
Duty
The Bulgarian Border Police took delivery of its first AW109
Power light twin helicopter during an official ceremony held at
Sofia Airport Tuesday. This helicopter will provide air
surveillance capability on the outer EU borders, since Bulgaria is
expected to be a Schengen Zone Member starting from March
2011.
Two additional AW109 Powers were
recently ordered by the Ministries of Finance and Interior of
Bulgaria for the Bulgarian Border Police, further expanding the
helicopter fleet of the service. The Bulgarian Border Police also
bought an AW139 medium twin helicopter in late 2009.
The AW109 Power is equipped with mission-dedicated equipment
including a NVG-compatible cockpit, moving map display, weather
radar, searchlight, external loudspeaker, provision for FLIR,
digital video downlink, video recorder and mission console. The
ability to change the interior configuration provides versatility
to support the range of law enforcement roles. With a maximum
cruise speed of 154 kts and a range of 512 nm, the AW109 Power
offers superior rapid reaction capabilities, area coverage and
endurance. The AW109 Power law enforcement is designed to perform a
wide range of security duties to meet the changing demands of law
enforcement: patrol, surveillance and tactical operations, state
border control, counter terrorism, search and rescue, armed
interdiction and other homeland security missions.
Numerous law enforcement and security agencies around the world
have chosen the AW109 Power to fulfill their requirements in
various countries such as Japan, China, Italy, the USA, Latvia,
Chile, United Kingdom and Slovenia. Over 470 helicopters have been
sold in almost 50 countries worldwide to date to perform law
enforcement, EMS, VIP/corporate transport and harbour pilot shuttle
missions.
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