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World Defense & Security News - Saudi Arabia
 
 
 
Saudi Arabia to ink a $560mn deal for 23 Airbus Helicopters H145 utility choppers
 
Airbus Helicopters will sell 23 H145 utility helicopters to Saudi Arabia for $560 million, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius announced Tuesday, June 23, 2015. A slew of deals worth billions of euros were announced following the first "Franco-Saudi Joint Commission" meeting in Paris, led by Fabius and Saudi Defence Minister Prince Mohamed bin Salman.
     
Airbus Helicopters will sell 23 H145 utility helicopters to Saudi Arabia for $560 million, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius announced Tuesday, June 23, 2015. A slew of deals worth billions of euros were announced following the first "Franco-Saudi Joint Commission" meeting in Paris, led by Fabius and Saudi Defence Minister Prince Mohamed bin Salman. Airbus Helicopters H145 light utility helicopter
(Airbus Helicopters)
     
These twin-engined helicopters will be used for a wide range of police and civil support missions, but not for military missions.

These latest orders follow two larger contracts being finalized with Poland, for 50 H-225M Caracal, and with Kuwait, whose ruler last week told French President François Hollande that he would buy 24 Caracals.

Designed to deliver excellent performance throughout the flight envelope, Airbus Helicopters’ H145 (formerly called the EC145 T2) is the latest member of its 4-ton-class twin-engine rotorcraft product range – with designed-in mission capability and flexibility, especially in high-and-hot operating conditions.

This evolved variant of the EC145 features a conventional tail rotor replaced by a fenestron shrouded tail rotor. Other changes include the installation of more powerful (775 kilowatts (1,039 shp) Arriel 2E engines, and various new avionics.