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.

FMI: www.eurocopter.com, www.targikielce.pl/targi/mspo/en/