The Ministries of Interior of Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania have ordered two five-bladed H145s each for their respective police forces, following a joint European tender that was launched in August 2022. The aircraft will replace the EC135 and MD902 helicopters currently in service in the two states. The H145s will feature a state-of-the-art police configuration including the latest generation of police mission equipment and Bambi Buckets for firefighting.
“We are proud that Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania have chosen the H145 for their police forces,” said Stefan Thomé, managing director of Airbus Helicopters in Germany. “The H145 with its state-of-the-art police equipment will be the backbone of the German state police forces in the next decades, with more than 15 H145s already in service and another 15 helicopters to be delivered in the coming years.”
There are more than 200 helicopters of the H145 helicopter family deployed to public services and law enforcement missions all around the world.
The new version of Airbus’ best-selling H145 light twin-engine helicopter was unveiled at Heli-Expo 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia, in March. This latest upgrade adds a new, innovative five-bladed rotor to the multi-mission H145, increasing the useful load of the helicopter by 150 kg. The simplicity of the new bearingless main rotor design will also ease maintenance operations, further improving the benchmark serviceability and reliability of the H145, while improving ride comfort for both passengers and crew.
In total, there are more than 1,650 H145 family helicopters in service, logging a total of more than 7 million flight hours. Powered by 2 Safran Arriel 2E engines, the H145 is equipped with full authority digital engine control (FADEC) and the Helionix digital avionics suite. It includes a high performance 4-axis autopilot, increasing safety and reducing pilot workload. Its particularly low acoustic footprint makes the H145 the quietest helicopter in its class, while its CO2 emissions are the lowest amongst its competitors.
