Royal Malaysian Air Force’s first EC725 helicopter

The Roy­al Malaysian Air Force’s first EC725 heli­copter is unveiled at the LIMA 2011 exhi­bi­tion in a live video broad­cast from Eurocopter’s French head­quar­ters

The pro­duc­tion roll-out of Eurocopter’s no. 1 EC725 heli­copter for the Roy­al Malaysian Air Force was shown today with a live video broad­cast from the company’s Marig­nane, France facil­i­ty, which was beamed to the Langkawi Mar­itime & Aero­space Exhi­bi­tion (LIMA) for an audi­ence that includ­ed Malaysian Prime Min­is­ter Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and Defense Min­is­ter Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. 

It is the first of 12 EC725s to be acquired by Malaysia for search & res­cue and util­i­ty mis­sions under terms of a con­tract signed in 2010. Euro­copter remains on sched­ule for this impor­tant acqui­si­tion pro­gram, with a total of eight heli­copters already in pro­duc­tion – and the no. 1 air­craft soon to enter flight test­ing. The Malaysian EC725 deliv­er­ies will begin next year and con­tin­ue through ear­ly 2014. 

“We want­ed to share this on-time mile­stone with Malaysia, pro­vid­ing atten­dees at LIMA 2011 with an ini­tial look at the newest heli­copter that will serve the coun­try in a vari­ety of oper­a­tions,” said Euro­copter Pres­i­dent & CEO Lutz Bertling. “The top pri­or­i­ty at Euro­copter is meet­ing its com­mit­ments to cus­tomers, and Malaysia can count on our company’s ded­i­ca­tion in deliv­er­ing heli­copters that ful­fill the nation’s mis­sion requirements.” 

In today’s roll-out broad­cast from Eurocopter’s Marig­nane head­quar­ters and pro­duc­tion site, the no. 1 EC725 was pre­sent­ed by the Roy­al Malaysian Air Force’s on-site project team, led by Col. Tuan Mustafa. 

Express­ing his appre­ci­a­tion to Euro­copter, Defense Min­is­ter Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hami­di said, “This is a high­ly appre­ci­at­ed ges­ture on the part of Euro­copter. We have full con­fi­dence that all 12 heli­copters will be deliv­ered on time. The EC725 fleet rep­re­sents a sig­nif­i­cant step towards strength­en­ing the Roy­al Malaysian Air Force’s capa­bil­i­ty. In addi­tion, coop­er­a­tion projects relat­ed to the sup­ply of the EC725s also are mov­ing along smooth­ly, ensur­ing that Malaysia’s avi­a­tion indus­try is devel­op­ing with the right skills and knowledge.” 

As part of the EC725 con­tract, an agree­ment for 13 strate­gic coop­er­a­tion projects was signed – includ­ing the inte­gra­tion of Malaysian indus­try into Eurocopter’s glob­al sup­ply chain, and the devel­op­ment of joint ven­tures with local com­pa­nies to estab­lish an in-coun­try MRO (main­te­nance, repair and over­haul) facil­i­ty, a region­al EC725/EC225 full-flight sim­u­la­tor cen­ter, and oth­er capa­bil­i­ties. The MRO and flight sim­u­la­tor instal­la­tions are being cre­at­ed togeth­er with the Boustead Group, and all 13 coop­er­a­tive projects will be aligned with Malaysia’s goals of enhanc­ing its indus­tri­al capa­bil­i­ties and eco­nom­ic strength through tech­nol­o­gy trans­fer and strate­gic partnerships. 

To sup­port the deliv­er­ies of Malaysia’s new EC725s and enhance Eurocopter’s in-coun­try sup­port and ser­vices activ­i­ties, the company’s Euro­copter Malaysia sub­sidiary will be mov­ing in July 2012 from its main facil­i­ty in Sub­ang to a new, expand­ed site with­in the Malaysian Inter­na­tion­al Aero­space Cen­ter – dou­bling its capacity. 

About Euro­copter

Estab­lished in 1992, the Fran­co-Ger­man-Span­ish Euro­copter Group is a divi­sion of EADS, a world leader in aero­space, defense and relat­ed ser­vices. The Euro­copter Group employs approx­i­mate­ly 17,500 peo­ple. In 2010, Euro­copter con­firmed its posi­tion as the world’s num­ber one heli­copter man­u­fac­tur­er in the civ­il and para­pub­lic mar­ket with a turnover of 4.8 bil­lion Euros, orders for 346 new heli­copters and a 49 per­cent mar­ket share in the civ­il and para­pub­lic sec­tors. Over­all, the Group’s heli­copters account for 33 per­cent of the total world­wide civ­il and para­pub­lic fleet. Eurocopter’s strong world­wide pres­ence is ensured by its 30 sub­sidiaries and par­tic­i­pa­tions on five con­ti­nents, along with a dense net­work of dis­trib­u­tors, cer­ti­fied agents and main­te­nance cen­ters. There are cur­rent­ly 11,360 Euro­copter heli­copters in ser­vice and some 2,900 cus­tomers in 149 coun­tries. Euro­copter offers the largest civ­il and mil­i­tary heli­copter range in the world. Web­site: www.eurocopter.com

About Euro­copter Malaysia

Euro­copter Malaysia was incor­po­rat­ed in 2002, and is the only heli­copter man­u­fac­tur­er with a com­pre­hen­sive net­work of main­te­nance, repair and over­haul (MRO) ser­vice cen­ters in Malaysia. With a work­force of 120 employ­ees and a pres­ence in Sub­ang, Miri and Kerteh, it pro­vides a broad spec­trum of ser­vices, rang­ing from sched­uled and unsched­uled main­te­nance, air­craft mod­i­fi­ca­tion (retro­fit, paint­ing, inte­ri­or refur­bish­ment and cus­tomiza­tion), as well logis­tics sup­port (spare parts, repairs and over­haul). Euro­copter Malaysia backs its sup­port offer with its inven­to­ry, 24-hour ser­vice, high­ly skilled work­ers and effi­cient logis­tic ser­vices. It has in its sta­ble some 20 local small and medi­um enter­pris­es as its ven­dors or part­ners. The com­pa­ny also is an autho­rized train­ing cen­ter, pro­vid­ing a range of ser­vices for cus­tomers from stan­dard train­ing to cus­tomized courses.

Web­site: www.eurocopter.com.my

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