AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica company, and Kanematsu Corporation are pleased to announce they have been awarded a contract by the Japan National Police Agency (JNPA) to supply two GrandNew law enforcement light twin helicopters as part of an on-going programme to modernise the Police helicopter fleet. The two aircraft will be operated in Saga and Tottori prefectures. The order represents the first sale of GrandNew helicopters to the Japan National Police Agency and is part of their plan to modernise its fleet with a modern high performance helicopter. The AgustaWestland GrandNew light twin helicopter features the latest generation avionics, high performance and safety, a large cabin and payload capability that was previously only available with intermediate category helicopters, whilst retaining attractive light twin category economics.

The selection of the GrandNew helicopter brings the number of AgustaWestland light twin helicopters operating in the Japanese law enforcement market to 25 and continues AgustaWestland’s growing share of the Japanese light twin engine market. AgustaWestland expects this growth to continue over the coming years. Andrew Symonds, President, AgustaWestland Japan said “This latest order is further evidence of the growing success we have experienced in the Japanese helicopter market in recent years, meeting commercial, government and military requirements by offering the best solutions and establishing strong relationships with our local partners. We are committed to building on this success by offering the best solutions for future rotorcraft requirements in Japan.”

The GrandNew represents a step change in capability for the JNPA with its state-of-the-art digital avionics for single/dual pilot Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) operation and a four-axis dual duplex digital autopilot coupled with a Flight Director. In addition the helicopter is equipped with the Chelton Flight Systems’ Flight-Logic Electronic Flight Instrument System (EFIS), Synthetic Vision and Highway In the Sky (HITS) embedded functions to deliver ultimate situational awareness and groundbreaking automated flight management capabilities. The new glass-cockpit with a redesigned layout provides excellent visibility and an ergonomic working space for the pilots. A new Radio Management System (RMS) permits the integrated management of radio communication and navigation systems of the helicopter while the Integrated Display System (IDS) provides aircraft/engine data monitoring, crew alert and maintenance data pages. Orders for more than 300 helicopters from the Grand series have been placed by over 180 customers in almost 40 countries worldwide, in order to perform many tasks including law enforcement, VIP/corporate and passenger transport, EMS, SAR, electronic newsgathering, harbour pilot shuttle, maritime patrol and water pollution monitoring.

Agusta Westland press release