Starting in 2010, the Finnish Army Aviation plans to deploy its fleet of NH90s on aerial work and support missions for nonmilitary government bodies, in addition to its normal military and special operations. These will include law and order, firefighting and search and rescue missions on land and at sea. This will be a highly demanding activity, because the aircraft are to be on standby 24 hours a day, seven days a week. To ensure this service, they will need to be capable of flying day or night, under highly varied, often grueling meteorological conditions. They will also have to deal with a diversity of mission requirements, ranging from rescuing shipwreck survivors at sea to evacuating injured persons who have met with an accident while riding a mountain bike or collecting mushrooms in the forest.

45 Missions Accomplished
For this reason, the Helicopter Battalion from Utti Jaeger Regiment is currently engaged on a campaign of evaluation and training flights for different types of mission, after having performed a number of tests focusing exclusively on winch operations. During one of these campaigns, in September this year, two NH90s in Initial Operational Capability (IOC) configuration carried out 45 missions over an eightday period, accumulating around 58 flight hours. The aircraft were deployed on a varied range of missions, from simple aerial search flights to rescues requiring winch operations. The latter were conducted at different altitudes and involved a variety of targets, including coastguard patrol vessels, life rafts, and even open water, at first using dummies and then real-life swimmers. During these missions, a loadmaster relayed a constant stream of information to the pilots concerning the position of the helicopter with respect to the target.

20 Aircraft
The performance of the helicopters during these missions was described as “encouraging”. The Finnish Helicopter Battalion was apparently more than satisfied with their reliability, which exceeded 90%. It should be pointed out that the aircraft were parked overnight in the open air, where nighttime temperatures often dropped below zero (°C). Conclusion: The Tactical Transport Helicopter (TTH) version of the NH90 is capable of performing a variety of SAR missions, on land and at sea, even under instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) and exposure to frost and ice. The Finnish Army Aviation first started operating with the NH90 in May 2008. To date, it has taken delivery of five aircraft. Four more, in the IOC+ configuration, are scheduled for delivery in 2009, to be followed by six in Final Operational Capability (FOC) configuration in 2010 and another five in 2011. The IOC and IOC+ helicopters will later be upgraded to FOC standard. The fleet will then comprise a total of 20 fully operational NH90s. n