IAR and Airbus expand their partnership

In the presence of the Romanian Minister of Economy, Claudiu Nâsui, and the CEO of Airbus Helicopters, Bruno Even, Industria Aeronautică Română (IAR) and Airbus Helicopters signed an Industrial Cooperation Agreement (ICA) in order to customise the Airbus H145M helicopter for the Forțele Aeriene ale României (FAR, Romanian Air Force). The customisation is mainly focussed on the future role as an attack helicopter.

The ICA includes the transfer of high-level technology capacity and know-how from Airbus Helicopters to the Romanian Defence Industry, with the aim of ensuring the continuous technical availability of the H145M helicopter fleet that would be operated by the Romania. This agreement is an add-on to the previous agreement under which IAR has become the main contractor for the Airbus H215M multi-role medium-heavy helicopter for any future order from the Romanian Ministry of Defence to replace the ageing current IAR330 helicopter fleet.

IAR Brasov would become responsible for the production and customisation of the H215M and H145M helicopters. Next to expanding its presence on the Romanian market it would bring substantial benefits to Romania like employment, the acquisition of high-level professional skills, greater contributions to the local budget and investment in education.

For this special occasion Airbus Helicopters flew the nicely camouflaged H145M with registration D-HCBS (construction number 20259) towards Bucharest/Otopeni for demonstration flights.

Photo: Nils Berwing via helionline.de