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| Securite Civile EC 145. Photo: Anthony Pecchi |
[Avionics Today 05-13-2016] The French Defence Procurement Agency (DGA) has awarded Airbus Helicopters a contract to retrofit the avionics suite of the 35 EC145 helicopters operated by the Sécurité Civile, an agency of the French Ministry of Interior that performs critical search and rescue and medical evacuation services throughout the French territory.
As part of the retrofit, Airbus will equip all aircraft with an improved avionics suite allowing them to retain their ability to perform missions in all weather conditions with high levels of safety, while at the same time complying with the latest Performance-Based Navigation (PBN) regulations.
The retrofit of the 35 aircraft follows on from the global services solution contract for the Sécurité Civile and Gendarmerie Nationale’s EC145 fleet awarded at the end of 2015. The aircraft, with this new contract managed by the Military Support Centre France (MSC-F), will be retrofitted over a seven-year period by Airbus Helicopters personnel deployed at the Sécurité Civile base in Nîmes in order to minimize the impact on the operational activity. The mechanical and electrical modifications necessary to integrate functions such as Localizer Performance with Vertical Guidance/Satellite-Based Augmentation System (LPV/SBAS) guidance, digital maps, and GPS installations have also been optimized to reduce the length of the retrofit operations.