27.05.2022.
Live-fire demonstration featuring H145M helicopter in Romania
At the invitation of Airbus, a delegation representing the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces has attended the "H-145M Firing Demo Days Romania", a live-fire demonstration featuring H-145M helicopters and SPIKE ER2 missiles. The event took place at the Cincu training area, Romania.
The delegation, including the representatives of the Serbian Armed Forces General Staff, Air Force and Air Defence, the Military Technical Institute and the Material Resources Sector, was led by Assistant Minister of Defence for Material Resources, Nenad Miloradović, PhD.
The activity aimed to examine the effect of modern SPIKE ER2 anti-tank missiles by test-firing them from the H-145M helicopter and to identify the directions in the development of this platform that should meet different requirements of the battlefield in the future.The presence of the MoD and SAF delegation at the event provided our experts with direct insight into the effects of the latest version of modern SPIKE ER2 anti-tank missiles with extended range of 10-16 kilometres produced by Israeli company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.
This visit has offered an insight into ways of integrating this anti-tank missile system on H-145M helicopters, and provided an opportunity to exchange experience with helicopter and missile manufacturers. These are fifth generation high-precision multipurpose anti-tank missiles that can be fired from different types of platforms (helicopters, vehicles, ships and portable ground launchers) featuring two types of communication transmissions.
The Serbian delegation and representatives of Airbus discussed the status of the ongoing H-145M project for the needs of the Serbian Armed Forces, particularly the possibility of arming those helicopters additionally with domestic or foreign guided missiles and enhancing their protection capability and the ability to transport robotic combat platforms.
The presentation has also laid out plans for modifying this helicopter, making it fit for the control of other unmanned aircraft (MuM-T/Man Unmanned Teaming), integration of additional protection systems, and networking it to higher-level command information systems with enhanced data exchange capabilities.
The production of an improved version of the helicopter to be delivered to the Republic of Serbia, is underway. It features a more modern rotor providing increased manoeuvrability and payload capacity, and an upgraded H-Force H3 attack-navigation system which has also been installed. This version is also being prepared for demonstration to the U.S. Armed Forces (Lacota B helicopter).
On the sidelines of the event, meetings were held with numerous foreign delegations, including the representatives of North Macedonian and German armed forces.
The H-145M is a modern armed multirole combat helicopter capable of performing various types of missions such as providing support to ground troops, reconnaissance, search and rescue, evacuation, transportation, special operations, etc. According to what was stated at the presentation, by integrating appropriate equipment on the H-145M, it will gain about 80 percent of modern attack helicopters’ capabilities at one third of their price.
