The Aviazione dell’Esercito Italiano (AvEs, Italian Army Aviation) has been looking to modernise its helicopter fleet for many years. Italy has a well-established aviation industry, with Agusta (later AgustaWestland and now Leonardo) providing many helicopters to different Italian armed forces.
Over the past 15 years, the Italian Army has been gradually introducing two new helicopters to its inventory and will continue with this as two more types are to be introduced. Having the entire helicopter fleet updated to the latest technology is a giant leap forward enabling the service to make better use of men and machines.
With continuous updates and upgrades, the Italian Army stays on top of the ever-changing situations on the battlefield as well as at home and the army is in full swing with the transition. The UH-90A and ICH-47F have been introduced into service over several years and have proven themselves in international deployments. A new light utility helicopter, the UH-169B, is being tested and a new attack helicopter, the AW249, is being developed.
As a result of a joint project involving Germany, Italy, France and the Netherlands as part of the NHI (NATO Helicopter Industries) consortium, the UH-90A (Italian designation…
