The Ministry of Interior of Rhineland-Palatinate has ordered two five-bladed Airbus H145s for its police force following a European tender launched earlier this year. The helicopters will replace the German regional state's current H135 fleet and will be operated by the police helicopter squadron in Winningen. The first delivery is planned for Q1 2024.

“We'd like to thank the Rhineland-Palatinate government for its continued trust in our helicopters,” says Airbus Helicopters managing director in Germany Wolfgang Schoder. “These five-bladed H145s will be outfitted with highly sophisticated equipment in order to further enhance the mission capabilities of the police force. We have seen with the flooding last year that law enforcement operators need to be able to rely on helicopters that can perform these demanding and essential missions, and the H145 does just that.”

There are more than 200 helicopters from the H145 helicopter family deployed for public services and law enforcement missions around the world.

The new version of Airbus' best-selling H145 light twin-engine helicopter was unveiled at Heli-Expo 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. This latest upgrade adds a new, innovative five-bladed rotor to the multi-mission H145, increasing the useful load of the helicopter by 150 kg. The simplicity of the new bearingless main rotor design also eases maintenance operations, further improving the benchmark serviceability and reliability of the H145, while improving ride comfort for both passengers and crew.