CHOPPERS

nnnnnnThe Frech Aerospatiale cooperated with the British RAF in the middle 60's to develop a medium transport helicopter. But the design's versatility made that today the PUMA has many different roles. The production stopped in 1984, with over 700 PUMAs built as transports, but aproximately 100 were built by Romania under license, and these cna be armed with machine-gun pods and AT-Missiles. Since then, almost every PUMA has been armed in several versions: The gunship version has a 20 mm cannon beneath the fuselage, plus up to 72 68 mm HR-68 rockets or 8 ZT3 127 mm ATGMs (Anti-Tank Guided-Missile). There are many more versions with different armament options, even a model for naval use, which carries Exocet Missiles (in the picture). It's known that a couple of PUMAs were the base for the development of the CHS-2 Rooivalk attack helicopter. There are several Cougar versions for the navy, like the SAR, in naval recon functions, the AS532SC is able to manage the surface situation, detect, identify and track the different types of surface targets, either in active or passive mode. It is able to provide Over The Horizon Targetting to any friendly firing ship. Equipped with a hoist it has a full SAR capability. The AS532SC, in one hour, is able to survey the same area as a frigate during 24 hours.

The Cougar ASW version, when fitted with the ASUW equipment package the AS532SC is the only modern helicopter in the western world to be armed with a long range fire and forget, all weather, stand-off, sea skimming and combat proven weapon system : the EADS AM39 BLOCK 2 missiles. The formidable fire-power of thes two missiles can be used far away, since the AS532SC in this configuration is able to strike a target 150nm away from its home ship or air base.In ASW configuration, the AS532SC is able to detect, classify, attack and destroy submarines in all weather conditions in deep or shallow waters. The ASW package includes a low frequency high depth dipping sonar with very high acoustic performance and short dip cycle time. It can be armed with two torpedoes. At 30nm from its base the AS532SC can remain more than 2.5 hours on task.