BY: DOMINIC PERRY
Airbus Helicopters will accelerate deliveries of its AS565 MBe Panther anti-submarine warfare rotorcraft following requests from the Indonesian and Mexican navies – its sole customers for the new variant.
Initial examples were due to be handed over to the services in mid-2017, but this has now advanced to late-2016, says the manufacturer.
Airbus says this has been enabled thanks to changes to the production process which have cut lead times by 30% for final assembly and flight-line operations. This saved “several months” on the first serial aircraft, which conducted its maiden flight in November.
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