Sees Need For Over 100 Helos
In conjunction with parent company
EADS, helicopter manufacturer Eurocopter is showing a strong
presence at this year's MSPO in Kielce, Poland.
The company tells ANN it displayed mock-ups of some of its
best-selling helicopters, the EC145 and the European joint venture
NH90 tactical transport helicopter at the show. A full-scale NH90
(type shown at right) may also be seen at the Static Display
by NHIndustries, the industrial consortium made up of Eurocopter
(62.5%), AgustaWestland (32%) and Stork-Fokker (5.5%).
To date, a total of 180 Eurocopter helicopters grace the skies
of Central and Eastern Europe. The helomaker notes two helicopter
types, the EC120 and EC135, have been particularly successful.
Steady growth has been experienced over the last three years in
the emergency medical services, law enforcement/homeland security,
corporate and military markets. Sixty percent of the current fleet
in Central and Eastern Europe is still made up of former-generation
helicopters that will come up for replacement in five to 10 years'
time.
Eurocopter plans to develop its share in the military market,
intending to become the reference supplier for the countries which
joined NATO in 1999. Two of these countries have already acquired
Eurocopter machines: Slovenia with the AS532 AL Cougar, and
Bulgaria with the AS565 MB Panther and AS532 AL Cougar for tactical
transport, combat support, VIP and SAR missions.
Eurocopter expects the main focus will next shift to Poland,
where a program for more than 100 helicopters is due to be
launched. The objective is to make Poland the first Central
European nation to join the already long list of European NATO and
allied countries that have selected the NH90 for full mission
interoperability and the rationalization of costs, training and
logistics.
A total of 495 NH90s are presently on order, the customer
nations being Sweden, Finland, Norway, Italy, The Netherlands,
France, Germany, Portugal, Greece, Spain and Belgium in Europe as
well as Australia, New Zealand and Oman overseas.
A further growth objective for Eurocopter is to participate in
the push for homeland security in the Schengen border countries,
and which joined the European Union in 2004 (Poland, Hungary,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia) and in 2007
(Bulgaria and Romania).
The EC135 is already the market leader in its category,
Eurocopter touts, adding the EC145 is off to a promising start.
The 15th International Defence Industry Exhibition MSPO runs
from September 3-6.
ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (05.02.24)
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