The Navy’s three AgustaWestland A109 Power helicopters provided under the Retention and Motivation Initiative (RMI) by Raytheon Australia achieved 1500 hours over the last contract year.
The milestone was recognised by Raytheon Australia’s managing director, Michael Ward, on May 13. “From its inception this program has characterised everything we are about as a company – starting with an ability to understand and anticipate the needs of our customers, through to a capacity to work with them to devise innovative solutions that deliver operational advantage today and prepare the force for the missions of tomorrow.”
The three A109s of ‘Power Flight’ provide Navy helicopter pilots with a modern digital cockpit equipped platform in which to train and accrue hours in lieu of deployed S-70B Seahawks and the cancelled SH-2G(A) Seasprite program, and their eventual Air 9000 Phase 8 naval combat helicopter replacement.
