South African Super Lynx 300 Officially Handed Over

[tigershark]

South African Super Lynx 300 Officially Handed Over
Four AgustaWestland Super Lynx 300 maritime helicopters were yesterday officially handed over to the South African Navy in a ceremony held at Simon’s Town Naval Base, South Africa in the presence of the South African Minister of Defence H.E. Mr M.G Lekota/Chief of the SA Air Force Lt Genl C Gagiano/ R.Adm Magalefa acting Chief of SA Navy and Mr H.S Thomo CEO Armscor. John Ponsonby, Senior Vice President Training, AgustaWestland said “Today marks the start of a new era in South African naval aviation and we are all proud that AgustaWestland is playing a major part in the South African National Defence Force’s modernisation plans. The Super Lynx is renowned throughout the world as the best small ship helicopter and will perform an important role in securing the territorial and political interests of South Africa.” The helicopters, which were ordered in 2003, represent the latest variant of the Super Lynx – the world’s most successful small ship helicopter. All four Super Lynx 300 Mk 64 aircraft for South Africa, which will be operated by the Air Force for the Navy, were delivered to South Africa in July 2007. Pilot and ground crew conversion training was completed in May 2007 by AgustaWestland at its Customer Training Centre in Yeovil and a team comprising a pilot, two service engineers and an In-service manager from AgustaWestland are assisting the South African Air Force during its introduction into operational service. The aircraft will be deployed on the South African Navy Valour class frigates performing anti-surface warfare, maritime patrol and SAR roles. The fully marinised Super Lynx 300 aircraft for South Africa are equipped with a range of advanced sensors including a Telephonics APS-143B 360 degree scan search radar, a nose mounted FLIR from Denel Optronics and an advanced Electronics Support Measures system from Sysdel CC. The aircraft also have a comprehensive communications suite sourced from South Africa comprising HF, V/UHF radios and a data link making them the most advanced version of the Super Lynx 300 helicopter developed and produced so far.

Full story
http://www.agustawestland.com/communication_det.php?id_news=353&yy=2008