Page 78 - Air Forces Monthly - September 2017

4° GRUPPO ELICOTTERI

Norman Atlantic
rescue
In December 2015 a fire broke out on a car
deck of the Italian-flagged ferry Norman
Atlantic, sailing from Patras in Greece to
Ancona, Italy, with almost 500 people on
board. Seven Italian Navy helicopters,
including examples of the SH-90A, responded
together with rotary- and fixed-wing assets
from the Italian Air Force and Coast Guard.
The result was one of the largest maritime
helicopter rescue missions ever attempted.
The rescue was made particularly difficult by
the high seas, darkness and the amount of
smoke coming from the ship. Poor weather
hampered efforts to attach cables to the
ferry for towing. While fireboats sprayed
water on the flames, helicopters winched
passengers away from the vessel, beginning
The SH-90A is equipped with with the injured, then the youngest and most
search radar, HELRAS dipping
sonar and active/passive vulnerable passengers, and finally all of the
sonobuoys for anti-submarine crew. More than 420 passengers and crew
missions. Sub-surface threats are were eventually airlifted by the helicopters
prosecuted with MU90 torpedoes. and delivered to the safety of nearby ships.
the combat operations centre of the ships
on the scene, but also with the operations
room located on land. The helicopter can
also provide aerial medical support and
ambulatory patient transport services.”
Up to 12 stretchers can be accommodated
in the cabin for dedicated medevac missions
and the SH-90A can also carry 14-16 troops
or more than 5,512lb (2,500kg) of cargo.
The inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR)
produced by a Thales and Selex Galileo
consortium has an operating radius of
approximately 217 miles (350km) and can
track multiple targets in the air and at sea. It
is backed up by a Sagem Euroflir 350 forward-
looking infrared (FLIR) sensor. Meanwhile,
the Selex Galileo OTS-90 acoustic system is
the most valuable sensor for anti-submarine
warfare (ASW). The OTS-90 includes a
Helicopter Long-Range Active Sonar (HELRAS)
dipping sonar produced by L3 plus active
and passive sonobuoys. The acoustic system
Above: Today, fewer than 20 AB212s are assigned to 2° and 4° Gruppo Elicotteri. The first of 68 examples was
introduced in 1976. This is MM80951 ‘7-20’, completed as an ASW version, but now equipped for heliborne
assault. Below: An SH-90A door-gunner wields the Dillon Aero M134D 7.62mm machine gun. This is typically
used for special forces support and operations with amphibious infantry of the San Marco Marine Brigade.
The MBDA Marte MK2/S missile is the weapon
of choice for attacking surface combatants.
The fire-and-forget, sea-skimming missile
flies initially under inertial guidance before
switching to active-radar terminal homing.

78 // SEPTEMBER 2017 #354 www.airforcesmonthly.com