Finmeccanica takes part in IDEX 2015 (International Defence Exhibition & Conference), which is held from 22 to 26 February in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (Stand 06-A03). The biennial event is one of the key defence shows on the international exhibition calendar.
The Gulf states are an extremely important area and an ideal partner for Finmeccanica, being one of the world’s most dynamic markets with the clear strategy of growing in high technology to gain a leadership position at a global level. The presence of Finmeccanica in the UAE goes back more than 40 years, to the early 70s, when Finmeccanica started to achieve significant successes with the former Aermacchi (MB.326 and MB.339) jet trainers and SIAI Marchetti (SF.260) basic trainers in service in several countries of the Arabic peninsula, together with the G.222 tactical airlifter, and with the supply of OTO Melara naval guns. Finmeccanica has continued to display an increasing commitment to the country, and at the same time the country has become increasingly influential in the Middle East region. Since then the Finmeccanica Group has been rewarded by a number of projects across all its key strategic sectors. This evolution has led to the creation of a UAE corporate headquarter in Abu Dhabi to co-ordinate Finmeccanica presence in the country as well as the region.
For the helicopter sector, Finmeccanica attends IDEX 2015 showcasing many of AgustaWestland leading commercial, parapublic and military products. These include the new generation AW169 in emergency medical service configuration, the best selling AW139 in a search and rescue variant, the all new AW149 military multirole helicopter, the medium-heavy three engine AW101 and the AW159 multirole naval helicopter. Finmeccanica-AgustaWestland has more than 200 new generation helicopters on order in the area to serve a number of customers, as well providing comprehensive support and training services to cover regional requirements. Executive/passenger transport and offshore missions are at the forefront of civil applications thanks to the outstanding customization capability of AgustaWestland and to the advantages of the Family of helicopters including the AW139, the AW169 and AW189. The AgustaWestland range of helicopters, which have outstanding performance in hot and high environmental conditions and feature the latest technology, are ideally suited to meet both commercial and government requirements in the area. The AW139 has proved to be an outstanding success in the Middle East market, this region alone representing around 25% of the entire AW139 sales worldwide thanks to several orders in UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman. The AW139 has been highly successful among a number of operators such as Abu Dhabi Aviation, Gulf Helicopters, and the Armed Forces and Government Agencies of Qatar and Oman. As for aftersales Abu Dhabi Aviation has been an AgustaWestland authorized Service Centre since 2005, with a joint venture named AgustaWestland Aviation Services LLC established in late 2011 to carry out a range of services and activities for the sale of helicopter spare parts and accessories, helicopter/component repair and overhaul, customisation, modification and upgrading. Qatar Armed Forces have a total of 21 AW139s in service, three of which for EMS missions. Furthermore, Gulf Helicopters in Qatar is an established operator of AW139 and has more recently started introducing into service a first batch of a total of 15 AW189s. Gulf Helicopters has been established as an AgustaWestland Authorised Training Centre for the two helicopter types. In the regional military market Oman operates a fleet of Super Lynx 300 and NH90 multirole helicopters. The Royal Oman Police also operates a number of AW139s for law enforcement and border and maritime patrol missions.
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