Transporthubschrauber
89, 98 and 06 in the Swiss Air Force
Evaluation
With the requirement to creat a more airmobile army, what the ageing
Alouette
III could not offer the Swiss Air Force evaluated a
new medium sized transporthelicopter. In this evaluation the
Aérospatiale AS.332 “Super Puma” proved to act
superior in the mountainouse regions to its contrahend the
Sikorsky
UH-60A “Blackhawk” (S-70).
Transporthaubschrauber 89
In 1987 the Swiss Air Force could
aquired three Super Puma for a competive price. These three
helicopters, Aérospatiale AS.332M1 “Super Puma”,
were delivered directly from the french factory and are called
Transporthubschrauber 89 (TH-89). Those three initial helicopters were
thought to test the helicopters instead of buying a large batch. It had
proved its ability in supporting civil authorities in natural disasters
like floods which led to the order of a second batch. The second batch
included 12 helicopters, Aérospatiale AS.332M1
“Super Puma”, which are also called
Transporthubschrauber 89 (TH-89). In Alpnach the RUAG
Factory started to end assemble these second batch of 12 helicopters .
The Super Puma is based on the civilian tansport-helicopter Aérospatiale
SA.330 “Puma” which was developed for offshore
missions.
On a trainingflight above the northern border the AS.332M1
T-316 flies with extracted gear
Transporthaubschrauber 98
In 1998 the Swiss Air Force needed further replace for some more
withdrawn Alouette III to suplement the medium transport helicopter
fleet. Meanwhile the Producer Aérospatiale has merrged with
MBB to Eurocopter which have the policy to have separate names for
civilian and military helicopters. This led to the renaming of the
AS.332 Superpumas for military operators with the marketname EC.532
“Cougar”. The Cougar offers further a EFIS-glascockpit with advanced
colour-displays, Flight Management System (FMS) and moving map. The
Swiss-Version of the EC.532UL were named Transporthelikopter 98 (TH 98).
The first two, T-333 and T-335 were assembled at the Eurocopter factory
in Marignane while the rest was assembled at the RUAG factory in
Alpnach. RUAG also retrofitted this thrid batch with a sofisticated
defensive suite from SAAB Avitronics IDAS which RUAG called Integrated
Self-Protection System (ISSYS). The ISSYS consists of
four sensorunits with each a Laser Warning System (LWS),
Radar Warning Receiver (RWR) and a Missile Warning System (MWS)
combined with four Counter
Measure Dispenser Systems consting 128 chaff- and
flare-decoys. The first two helicopter were handed over on the 16th
February 2001. The last Cougar, the T-342 was drapped with a drawing of
cougar (mountain lion) next to the cockpit and handed over in Mai 2002.
During the Axalp shootingrange trainings this EC.532
provides liaison flights for guets
The fleet of the Swiss Air Force had been
completed in 2002
and consist of the following 27 helicopters:
| T-311 | TH-89, AS.332M1 Super Puma |
| T-312 | TH-89, AS.332M1 Super Puma |
| T-313 | TH-89, AS.332M1 Super Puma |
| T-314 | AS.332M1 Super Puma |
| T-315 | AS.332M1 Super Puma |
| T-316 | AS.332M1 Super Puma |
| T-317 | AS.332M1 Super Puma |
| T-318 | AS.332M1 Super Puma |
| T-319 | AS.332M1 Super Puma |
| T-320 | AS.332M1 Super Puma |
| T-321 | AS.332M1 Super Puma |
| T-322 | AS.332M1 Super Puma |
| T-323 | AS.332M1 Super Puma |
| T-324 | AS.332M1 Super Puma |
| T-325 | AS.332M1 Superpuma (VIP-Bestuhlung) |
| T-331 | TH-98, AS.532UL Cougar (VIP-Bestuhlung “Comfort”) |
| T-332 | TH-98, AS.532UL Cougar |
| T-333 | TH-98, AS.532UL Cougar |
| T-334 | TH-98, AS.532UL Cougar |
| T-335 | TH-98, AS.532UL Cougar |
| T-336 | TH-98, AS.532UL Cougar |
| T-337 | TH-98, AS.532UL Cougar |
| T-338 | TH-98, AS.532UL Cougar |
| T-339 | TH-98, AS.532UL Cougar |
| T-340 | TH-98, AS.532UL Cougar |
| T-341 | TH-98, AS.532UL Cougar |
| T-342 | TH-98, AS.532UL Cougar (Cougar-Batch) |
