A UAE-based firm is evaluating twin-engined commercial helicopters for conversion to military gunships, having successfully delivered several armed Bell Helicopter 407s to its host country.
NorthStar Aviation launched operations in 2011 to deliver lightly modified Bell 407 trainers to the UAE military.
The company expanded to convert the commercial Bell 407GX with a Garmin G1000 cockpit system into an armed helicopter, capable of surveillance and light attack missions. The last of 30 NorthStar 407MRH aircraft will be delivered to the UAE military in the first quarter of 2017, says David Williams, NorthStar’s design engineer.
Now the company is evaluating several twin-engined types, including US and European-built helicopters, for similar conversion into armed aircraft, he says.
Photo: NorthStar Aviation
At the same time, NorthStar is seeking to win additional orders for the 407MRH from foreign militaries, he says.
Although NorthStart displayed the 407MRH at the AUSA Annual Meeting in Washington DC, the company does not consider the US military a likely buyer.
A US-based subsidiary, however, is deeply involved in the conversion process. A NorthStar-owned facility in Melbourne, Florida, takes delivery of factory-built 407GX aircraft, then modifies the avionics with an expanded instrument panel, including a mission display and a weapons display.
Photo: NorthStar Aviation
The commercial aircraft is then shipped to a NorthStar facility in AbuDhabi, where workers integrate a weapons firing platform, composite fairings, communications and surveillance equipment. The 407MRH is equipped with a FLIR Star Safire infrared and electro-optical surveillance turret.
"We can build this faster and cheaper than what they can get going through an OEM," Williams says.
The aircraft joins an eclectic fleet of armed conversions of civilian aircraft in the UAE military arsenal, including weapons-firing versions of the AirTractor AT802 cropduster, Cessna C208 Caravan and de Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
