Cyprus orders six H145Ms for its National Guard

Nicosia – The Cyprus government has signed a contract with Airbus Helicopters to purchase six H145M helicopters, with an option for another six. The Cypriot National Guard will operate the five-bladed helicopters.

“The operation of this agreement will provide the National Guard with a cost-effective and high-performance helicopter solutions to meet the General Staff’s operational requirements and addresses many of the future challenges of light attack helicopter fleets.” The H145M will improve the National Guard’s day and night capabilities in delivering rapid response, fire power and precision, providing effective combat support, and acquiring critical information, according to Andreas P. Louka, Permanent Secretary of the Republic of Cyprus Ministry of Defence.

A military light utility helicopter with multiple roles is the H145M. The newest H145M, which is a derivative of the civil H145, has an unique, five-bladed rotor that boosts the helicopter’s payload by 150 kg. The new bearing less main rotor’s design makes maintenance tasks easier as well.

It is powered by two powerful Safran Helicopter Engines Arriel 2E turbines, controlled by the FADEC (full authority digital engine control) system. In addition, the helicopter is equipped with the Helionix digital avionics suite and thus offers not only innovative flight data management but also a powerful 4-axis autopilot, which considerably reduces the pilots’ workload in their missions. Its particularly low noise emissions make the H145 the quietest helicopter in its class.

The H145M is already in service in Hungary (20), Germany (15), Serbia (9), Thailand (5) and Luxembourg (2). The US Army operates a fleet of more than 460 locally built civil helicopters of the H145 family under the name UH-72 Lakota.