New Mission Planning & Analysis System from AgustaWestland for NH90 NFH helicopters delivered to Netherlands navy

Posted John McHaleSESTO CALENDE, Italy, 12 May 2011. Royal Netherlands navy (RNLN) officials selected a Mission Planning & Analysis System (MPAS) from AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica company, for its fleet of NH90 NFH medium twin naval helicopters. Prior to delivery, the MPAS went through a thorough verification by the RNLN at the AgustaWestland Helicopter Support Systems facility in Sesto Calende and then at the De Kooy naval base in the Netherlands. The system will be fully operational by the end of next year. The RNLN MPAS is based on the AgustaWestland-designed Skyflight Planning System, a multi-helicopter flight and mission planning solution that all variants of AgustaWestland's mission planning stations rely upon. Skyflight technology is currently being used for the development of the English Ministry of Defense's AW159 and Apache Mission Planning Systems. It also is the core element for the flight planning system of the AW101 VVIP helicopter and will be delivered to the Royal New Zealand air force in support of mission planning for their AW109 LUH helicopters. The delivered system will now support the RNLN's operations as well as training activities by providing the users with enhanced situation awareness, flight and mission planning functionality, and a complete aircraft data upload/download capability.The Royal Netherlands navy ordered a total of 20 NH90 NFHs and was the first customer to receive the NFH variant aircraft in April 2010. In the framework of the NH90 program, AgustaWestland is responsible for the production of the main transmission, tail drive shafts, hydraulic system, automatic flight control system, rear ramp, rear fuselage, the T700/6E1 engine solution installation and on-board computers. AgustaWestland also is responsible for the overall integration of the NH90 naval mission system for all NFH variants.