Finmeccanica to Showcase Helicopters and Aircraft at LIMA 2015

AW189 - The brand-new 8.3 tonne twin-engine helicopter
(Source: AgustaWestland)

Finmeccanica takes part in LIMA 2015, which is held from 17 to 21 March in Langkawi, Malaysia, a dedicated maritime and aerospace event for defence, civil and commercial application and one of the most influential exhibition in Asia.

Finmeccanica, attending the exhibition through its companies AgustaWestland and Alenia Aermacchi, is the leading Group in Italy and among the world’s top players in the design, development, manufacture and support of commercial/military aircraft and helicopters. Finmeccanica, through those companies, is able to represent an aeronautics integrated simulation and training system. 

At LIMA 2015, AgustaWestland will be exhibiting the first AW189 helicopter to be delivered to Weststar Aviation Services and the corporate configured GrandNew light twin engine helicopter, highlighting two of its class leading products in the commercial helicopter sector.

HELICOPTERS

Finmeccanica-AgustaWestland helicopters serve with Malaysia’s Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and Fire Service. The AW139 is the market leader in the important offshore oil & gas market and the new generation AW169 and AW189 helicopters have already achieved significant success in Asia for a range of different applications. With the AW139 they all together form AgustaWestland’s unique Family of new generation helicopters.

In the military market AgustaWestland has also a complete product range of helicopters for land and

AW149 - A superior military, multi-role capable platform
(Source: AgustaWestland)

maritime operations. These include the AW109 multi-role helicopter, AW159 naval helicopter, AW149 multi-role utility helicopter and at the top of the weight range the AW101.

Customer Support And Training: The company offers a comprehensive range of support and training services locally through AgustaWestland Malaysia, headquartered at Subang Airport near Kuala Lumpur. AgustaWestland Malaysia’s regional maintenance and support centre is a Malaysian DCA approved maintenance and repair organization. AgustaWestland Malaysia provides local support and training for the growing fleet of company’s customers in the region.

AgustaWestland Malaysia will soon open a new larger facility to support its growing business activities in the region. The facility acts as a regional headquarters providing sales, maintenance, technical support and training services to customers. It is also home to one of AgustaWestland’s four training academies designated AWTA Malaysia.

The regional training academy is located at Kuala Lumpur's Subang - Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport and is part of company’s continued investment programme in Malaysia. Opened in January 2012, the AWTA Malaysia offers a range of courses for the AW109 Power, GrandNew and AW139 helicopters and is planning to expand this to cover new types such as the AW169 and AW189 in the near future. Many courses are currently available including type rating ground courses, general familiarisation type training courses and airframe maintenance type training courses, flight transition courses, recurrent training to name a few.

AIRCRAFT

Finmeccanica-Alenia Aermacchi has a consolidated presence in Malaysia and in the South East Asia (SEA), with jet trainers such as the MB-339AM and the more recent MB-339CM in service within the Royal Malaysian Air Force since 1983 and 2009 respectively. In some SEA countries the military pilots gain their preliminary flying skills with the Alenia Aermacchi SF-260 primary trainers.

As far as commercial airplanes are concerned, several millions of Asians fly every year on the ATR regional aircraft in service in the country’s airlines fleets. Malaysian and other Asian Air Forces have ongoing defence modernisation programmes with investments in terms of technology, weapon systems and training. In response to such needs of modernization, Alenia Aermacchi can offer a range of products to satisfy the demanding operational requirements typical of scenarios in the Region SEA.

Training: a complete Integrated Training Systems (ITS) to enhance training effectiveness and efficiency, reducing cost and preparing crews to manage the modern and complex mission systems. Thanks to its range of trainer aircraft, Alenia Aermacchi can cover the pilot’s complete training syllabus, from the screening/primary phase to the basic phase on the new low-cost and single-engine turbofan-powered M-345 HET, up to the advanced and LIFT (Lead-In Fighter Training) phase on the twin-engine M-346, the market leader, ordered by several countries among which Italy, Poland, Singapore and a Middle East country, for a total of 59 aircrafts.

Tactical Transport and Special Mission: the Company can also offer the new-generation medium tactical airlifter: the C-27J Spartan twin-engine tactical transport and the multi-mission variant MC-27J. The C-27J Spartan is worldwide considered as the benchmark in the new-generation, medium battlefield airlifter category. Ordered and in service with full satisfaction by the most important Air Forces in the most demanding operational conditions, the Spartan has already fully demonstrated its capability to effectively accomplish any tactical transport mission. Providing high performance, extreme operating flexibility, cost efficiency, it is the only aircraft in its class capable of interoperability with heavier airlifters.

The MC-27J, the multi-mission variant of the C-27J, is capable of performing special forces missions, covering a wide range of specific tasks without giving up its tactical transport capabilities.

Furthermore the maritime patrol versions of the Alenia Aermacchi aircraft can carry out all maritime patrol roles with extremely low operational costs. There are also interesting opportunities for the regional civil aircraft Superjet100 (SSJ-100), developed and built in cooperation with the Russian Sukhoi, through the SCAC joint venture, which is a new-generation regional jet to develop short and medium-haul routes in South East Asia area.

THE COMPANY

Finmeccanica is Italy’s leading manufacturer in the high technology sector and ranks among the top ten global players in Aerospace, Defence and Security. In 2013 Finmeccanica generated revenues of about 16 billion Euros. With 362 locations and production facilities in 22 countries, Finmeccanica is a multinational and multicultural group which boasts a significant presence in four domestic markets: Italy, the United Kingdom, the U.S. and Poland. Finmeccanica’s core business activities are in the following sectors: Helicopters (AgustaWestland), Defence Electronics and Security (Selex ES, DRS Technologies), Aeronautics (Alenia Aermacchi). The company also has a significant position in Space (Telespazio, Thales Alenia Space), Defence Systems (OTO Melara, WASS, MBDA) and Transportation (Ansaldo STS, AnsaldoBreda).