Eurocopter to Supply Four EC725 SAR Helicopters to the Royal Thai Air Force

(Photo: Eurocopter)

Marignane | A contract was signed today between Eurocopter and the Royal Thai Air Force for the supply of four EC725 helicopters, configured for search and rescue missions. 

Signing the new agreement today were Air Marshal Paiboon Singhamat of the Royal Thai Air Force, and Olivier Lambert, Eurocopter’s Senior Vice President for Sales and Customer Relations. 

“This latest endorsement underscores the role of our EC725/EC225 family as the helicopters of reference in Asia for search & rescue,” Lambert said. “It also marks a new step in Eurocopter’s expansion of its ties with Thailand as the country moves ahead with modernization programs for its helicopter fleets.” 

Deliveries of the EC725, the twin-engine tactical rotorcraft from Eurocopter's successful Cougar family, will be in 2015. 

“This contract for the EC725 will greatly enhance the capabilities of the Royal Thai Air Force, giving us added reach and effectiveness in search and rescue missions," stated Air Marshal Paiboon Singhamat, Chairman of the Purchasing Committee. 

The twin-engine EC725/EC225 rotary-wing aircraft family features high-performance navigation and mission systems, including a unique digital four-axis autopilot. Offering excellent flight autonomy, this powerful machine is also great for tactical transport as it has a large cabin with seating for 25 persons. As a result, the EC725 military version and its EC225 civilian/parapublic variant have become the reference for civil and military search and rescue, off-shore and passenger transport missions around the world. 

Eurocopter already is a helicopter supplier in Thailand for military and law enforcement, having been selected for acquisitions by the Royal Thai Army and Royal Thai Police. 

Read more at: http://www.defpro.com/

Indonesia Takes Delivery of First Two Airbus Military C295 Aircraft

Indonesian CN295 delivery ceremony on Sept. 19, 2012. (Photo: Airbus Military)

Indonesia has taken delivery of two Airbus Military C295 transport aircraft ordered in February this year. The aircraft are the first of nine to be delivered to the Indonesian Ministry of Defence under the terms of a contract signed by Airbus Military and PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PT DI). 

The delivery took place in the Airbus Military San Pablo site in Seville, where the C295 final assembly line is located, at a ceremony attended by the Indonesian Vice Minister of Defence, Lt. Gen. (ret) Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, and Airbus Military Vice President Head of Programmes Light & Medium and Derivatives, Rafael Tentor. 

The aircraft will be operated by the Indonesian Air Force and known in service as the CN295. It will perform a wide variety of roles including military, logistical, humanitarian and medical evacuation missions throughout the huge territory of Indonesia, which includes around 17,000 islands. The delivery of the ninth and last aircraft ordered is scheduled for summer 2014. 

Rafael Tentor said: “The delivery of these aircraft is an important step in Airbus Military´s collaboration with the Indonesian aerospace industry and we greatly look forward to increasing our level of co-operation in the years ahead.” 

To date, Airbus Military has sold 114 C295s. After the entry in service of these aircraft there will be 88 C295s in operation in 15 countries all over the world. 

The attached photograph shows the delivery ceremony held in Seville. 

THE C295 

The new generation C295 is the ideal aircraft for defence and civic mission to the benefit of society, such as humanitarian actions, maritime patrol, and environmental surveillance missions, amongst others. Thanks to its robustness and reliability, and with simple systems, this medium sized tactical airlifter provides wide versatility and flexibility, necessary for personnel, troop and bulky/palletized cargo transportation, casualty evacuation, communication and logistic duties or certified air-dropping capabilities. Its mix of dual technology civil/military equipment ensure success on demanding tactical mission, growth potential for future equipment as well as compatibility with the latest civil airspace environment. The C295 is part of Airbus Military’s family of light and medium airlifters which also include the smaller C212 and CN235 platforms. 

Company or Organisation Contact:
Jaime Pérez-Guerra 
+34 915 85 77 89
Mobile: +34 669 67 75 78
Email: Media.relations@military.airbus.com

Maggie Bergsma 
+34 915 85 76 07
Mobile: +34 615 02 31 04
Email: Maggie.bergsma@military.airbus.com

Questions Abound as China Unveils Another Stealth Jet

• By David Axe

Article from 

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/


Shenyang J-21. Photo: via China Defense Blog

Twenty-one months after China’s Chengdu aerospace firm unveiled its J-20 jet fighter prototype — Beijing’s first stealth warplane — the rival Shenyang company has revealed what appears to be a competing, radar-evading plane. Over the weekend photos of increasing resolution leaked onlinedepicting a previously unknown, black-painted warplane with the distinctive qualities of a stealth design.

So China now possesses two potentially combat-capable stealth jets. But — and we can’t emphasize this enough — it’s not at all certain that either will make it through development, testing and full-scale production and into front-line service. Just ask the U.S. Air Force, which since the 1980s has overseen creation of no fewer than four different stealth fighter prototypes but so far has only managed to equip just six war-ready squadrons with fewer than 200 operational jets. And that at an extremely high price: up to $700 million per plane, depending on how you count.

The J-21 that appeared this weekend is outwardly similar to the nearly two-year-old J-20. Both have two engines, two tails, big trapezoidal wings and the sharp, faceted features of a radar-evading plane. In that sense the J-21 and the J-20 evoke America’s first batch of stealth prototypes, the twin-tail, twin-engine Lockheed YF-22 and Northrop YF-23.

Those two planes flew head-to-head in 1991, vying for an Air Force construction contract. The YF-22 won and, 14 years, a major redesign and some $70-billion later, entered service as the F-22 Raptor. Ten years later the Pentagon ran a second competition pitting the Boeing X-32 versus Lockheed’s X-35 — both single-engine stealth designs. Again, Lockheed won, and is today developing the F-35 into a combat-ready warplane, though painfully slowly.

It’s unclear whether Beijing intends to compete the J-20 against the J-21 for a single acquisition program. It’s equally possible both jets are meant for production. It’s also conceivable that neither is — that they’re both strictly test vehicles. “Feng,” an analyst writing for Information Dissemination, believes Beijing can only afford to manufacture one of the new planes and will be forced to choose. But that’s conjecture. As with any Chinese weapons initiative, among outsiders there are more questions than answers.

For example, just how stealthy is the J-21 — and for that matter, the slightly older J-20? Both share the general shape of the U.S. F-22. But American stealth design relies on more than shape. Special radar-absorbing materials, sophisticated heat-absorption systems, “silent” electronic gear plus extreme high speed and altitude performance all combine to give the F-22 its so-far unique ability to evade enemy defenses. It’s hard to say whether China has mastered, or even attempted, those techniques.

Moreover, if the airplane revealed this weekend is the new J-21, then what exactly is the partially-disassembled, shrink-wrapped airplane photographed being trucked through Chinese cities back in June? When that plane first appeared, some observers thought it was the J-21 being shipped in pieces to an airfield for assembly and testing. But the differences between it and Shenyang’s new prototype are too big and numerous for the two to be directly related. Whatever the June jet is, it remains mostly unseen and, to outsiders, entirely unknown.

In other words, China has just pulled the cover off its second type of stealth fighter. But it may already have a third in the works. And it’s even possible one or more of them will eventually evolve into a useful front-line warplane.