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Helitech: Merlin situation improving says AgustaWestland

8th October 2010 - 21:14 GMT | by Tony Osborne

RSS

AgustaWestland says it has made huge progress in improving the availability of the Portuguese Air Force's Merlin fleet.

Earlier this week, Rotorhub.com reported that some Merlin crews were still expressing some dissatisfaction over the availability of the type. The air force operates the Merlin in three roles, SAR, CSAR and the fisheries protection role, although all three versions can perform the long range SAR mission required of it. The Merlins are operated by 751 Squadron based at Montijo which has a fleet of 12 Merlins, covering the enormous maritime SAR area which Portugal looks after from bases on Madeira, the

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Author

Tony Osborne

Tony was deputy editor of Defence Helicopter and Rotorhub magazines before joining Aviation Week in …

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