Airbus Helicopters announced Jan. 31 it has successfully demonstrated the ability to fire Thales’ laser-guided rockets (LGR’s) from its H145M helicopters.
The tests were conducted in Dec. 2017 at the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration flight test center in Älvdalen, Sweden and was the first attempt to try launch Thales’ FX275 70-millimeter LGR’s.
“The laser guided rockets from Thales performed incredibly well especially taking into consideration the weather conditions we experienced during the trials which were far from ideal with a lot of moisture in the air,” said Raymond Laporte, an Airbus test pilot, in a statement.
The FX275 LGR’s are designed to improve precision strike needs for Airbus’ H145M military customers worldwide, and aims to reduce the risk of collateral damage specifically during asymmetric combat operations.
Airbus’ helicopters utilize L3’s [LLL] MX-15D electro-optical system to fire the rockets up to a distance of 4.5 km.
The latest LGR test is part of Airbus’ HForce strategy to develop improved H145M mission capabilities, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2018. Airbus aims to deploy LGR’s on the helicopters by the end of 2019.