Leonardo has signed a contract to supply an ATR 72MP aircraft to the Italian Customs Police and provide associated logistics support and training services. The contract, valued about 44-million euros, was awarded following a European tender and includes options which would bring the total value up to 250 million euros. The first delivery will take place in 2019.

Alessandro Profumo, Leonardo’s CEO, said: “We are proud that the Italian Customs Police, which already operates our aircraft and helicopters, continues to place their trust in our capabilities. The ATR 72MP, based on the modern ATR 72-600 regional turboprop aircraft, is a tangible example of Leonardo’s leadership position in both platforms and their systems. This is an aircraft that can carry out numerous roles including maritime patrol, searching for and identifying surface vessels, search & rescue (SAR) missions, the prevention of narcotic-trafficking, piracy and smuggling, territorial water security and the monitoring-of and intervention-in ecological disasters. It comes equipped with our latest-generation communications and data sharing systems, meaning the aircraft can transmit and receive real-time information to and from ground-based command and control centres and airborne/maritime platforms, improving coordination and maximising operational effectiveness”.

The ATR 72MP will be part of the Italian Customs Police’s range of airborne and naval capabilities which can be called on to respond to the wide range of missions carried out by the organisation. Because of its airborne capabilities, the Customs Police is the only law enforcement agency in Italy able to provide full surveillance coverage along the entirety of the country’s coastal border and in international waters.

Equipment on-board the ATR 72MP for the first time will support the Italian Customs Police in carrying out specific surveillance activities that come under their responsibility. The ATR 72MP will perform maritime patrol and search using on-board sensors to detect and identify sensitive targets, maintaining a position of low observability when necessary, monitoring target’s behaviour, recording proof for prosecutions and directing naval and land-based assets.

The ATR 72MP, already in service with the Italian Air Force which refers to it as the P-72A, is equipped with Leonardo’s ‘ATOS’ (Airborne Tactical Observation and Surveillance) modular mission system. The ATOS manages the aircraft’s wide spectrum of sensors, fusing the information gathered in complex situations and presenting a single tactical picture to operators, providing excellent situational awareness.

Thanks to the system’s advanced man-machine interface, only two system operators are needed to fully exploit the ATOS in the aircraft’s standard configuration. Thanks to its commercial design, the ATR 72MP also features crew ergonomics that help maintain the efficiency and effectiveness of operators during lengthy missions such as maritime patrol, search and identification, search and rescue, counter-smuggling, anti-piracy and territorial water protection, all of which typically last in excess of 8 hours.