The Italian army’s aviation inventory is to rationalise its fleet of nine helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft types today to just four, including a new attack platform to be developed by Leonardo.

Operations with the service’s Boeing CH-47C transports will be fully transferred to its 16 new F-model Chinooks this year, says Col Roberto Minini, chief of flight safety for Italian Army Aviation. Its growing fleet of NH Industries NH90s will replace an ageing inventory of Bell 205s and Bell 212/412s by 2021, he adds.

Leonardo’s new 8t-class attack helicopter will replace the army’s AgustaWestland AW129D Mangusta aircraft from 2033-2035, Minini says, and the incoming model will feature a much-reduced crew workload.

The army’s current Mangusta has undergone weapons, sensor and communications upgrades and is now qualified to fly from the Italian navy’s aircraft carrier, theGaribaldi. The type will soon also be qualified to operate at night from all the service’s ships, Minini told the IQ Defence International Military Helicopter conference in London.

Four of the army’s AW129s remain based in Afghanistan – down from a peak of 10 in 2010-2013. These are supported by four NH90s to provide a personnel recovery package capability that was tested in August 2016, following an ambush of tourists in Herat.

Italy has also increased its contribution in Iraq, and now has AW129s and NH90s based in Irbil for personnel recovery duties.

Meanwhile, the army is to realign its different-standard NH90s by deploying examples in a full operational capability configuration – which gains a helmet-mounted sight display-compatible obstacle warning system – to Iraq, and retaining earlier advanced initial operational capability (IOC++) airframes in Afghanistan.

Source: FlightGlobal.com