Airbus Helicopters chooses Thales to integrate Laser Guided Rockets on H145M helicopters
Thales has been awarded a contract and received a full notice to proceed from Airbus Helicopters for integration of its Semi-Active Laser Guided Rocket FZ275 Laser Guided Rocket (LGR) on H145M helicopter. This contract follows the selection of Thales solutions to provide rocket systems to Airbus Helicopters’ platforms with its new weapon management system HForce.
Under this contract, Thales will provide engineering support for the integration of its FZ275 LGR LGR on H145M helicopter including a 70mm/2.75’’unguided rocket system.With FZ275 LGR deployed soon on H145M with a 12-tube rocket launcher FZ231, it will be the first armed commercial helicopter of Airbus Helicopters with an LGR capability, according to Thales. Other candidate helicopters for the integration of LGR include the medium-sized twin-engine helicopter H225M and H125M.
The first firings tests on H145M are scheduled in 2017 for technical qualification and operational assessments.