Japan National Police Agency Buys AgustaWestland AW139 Helicopters

[AeroSpace News]

AgustaWestland and Mitsui Bussan Aerospace have announced that the Japan National Police Agency (JNPA) has signed contracts for three AW139 medium twin helicopters. These helicopters will be used by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, Nagaono Prefectural Police and Hokkaido Prefectural Police to perform multi-role law enforcement missions. The helicopters will enter operational service with their prefectures in Spring 2013. These latest orders bring the number of medium twin-engine law enforcement helicopters ordered for Japan to seven, and follows recent orders by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Agency and JNPA, who will deploy the AW139 to both the Chiba and Osaka Prefectural Police.

All three Prefecture’s AW139’s will feature a comprehensive mission-dedicated fit including, weather radar, search light, cargo hook, rescue hoist, fast roping and  rappelling system, loudspeaker system, main rotor blade high visibility painting and snow pads. The advanced avionics systems selected include a side mounted Cineflex T14 camera, which is customized in Japan, the state of the art Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS) capable GPS, Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) and the Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS).

SOURCE: AgustaWestland