First TNI-AD Bell 412EPi

On 28 December 2018, the Tentara Nasional Indonesia, Angkatan Darat (TNI-AD, Indonesian Army Aviation) ordered nine Bell 412EPi for use with their Army squadrons.

The first four-twelve has been handed over to the TNI-AD on 29 December 2020. PT Dirgantara has already co-produced over seventy Bell 412 throughout the years. Actually, the seventh example of this order of nine was the seventieth PT Bell 412.

The basic airframes arrived from Bell Textron Canada early 2019 to be tailored to TNI-AD needs by PT Dirgantara at Bandung. The first three went through their certification early April 2020 and the test flying of at least three of them has been in full swing in the last quarter of 2020 (see Scramble News 9 November 2020020). Notably HA-5224 (test registration HX-4143, 37025) was performing tests with two M134D miniguns whereas HA-5229 (HX-4148, 37035) and HA-5230 (HX-4149, 37036) were busy on pre-delivery test flights, still in primer, in November and December. The 412EPi that was first delivered was HA-5224.

Photo by PT Dirgantara / TNI-AD