For over 20 years, the Australian state of Victoria has been using the Dauphin for police and EMS missions. The helicopters are well equipped and can be deployed on a wide range of tasks.

The Victoria Police Air Wing began operating in 1986 with a AS365 C1 Dauphin, which had a conventional landing gear. Two other identical helicopters followed before the authorities switched to the AS365 N3 Dauphin.
Today, the Victorian Police Department uses two such helicopters. The first was delivered in 2001, and is mainly used for EMS missions. Configured as an ambulance, the vehicle can transport an injured person lying down and up to four crew members. The second AS365 N3 Dauphin, which began operating three months later, is deployed for police and SAR missions. The Victorian Police Department also has an AS350 Ecureuil in its fleet, which is mainly used for rural road surveillance purposes. While the police has its own air crews, maintenance is subcontracted to CHC, which also owns the helicopters.
“It has proven to offer strong performance and reliability that’s well-suited to all of our missions, including surveillance, rescue, EMS and police support,” says Peter Latham, training pilot and one of the Air Wing’s 14 pilots. “We also support marine rescue along the coast to a maximum range of 150 nautical miles. On a single flight, the crew could be working with FLIR supporting police one minute, and then heading to a mission on the open seas the next.” The Victorian Dauphins are equipped with a Nightsun projector, a hoist and an optronic turret containing infrared and daylight vision systems. The images can be transferred to the ground in real time with data links.
“Another special feature is that the aircraft and pilots are qualified for single pilot IFR flights,” says Peter Latham. “This gives us more operational flexibility, which we will increase even more in the future. With night vision goggles (NVG), we’ll be able to go on night missions in difficult territory, such as the mountain and valleys in the north of Victoria that were not previously possible due to weather and lowest safe altitude consideration.” The Victorian police’s AS365 N3 Dauphin is the first Australian Dauphin helicopter to be equipped with a cockpit suitable for NVG use.