Leonardo congratulates the Royal Malaysian Navy’s 501 Squadron on reaching the milestone of 10,000 flight hours with their six Super Lynx helicopters. To mark the milestone Lorenzo Pariani, Leonardo’s Head of Region SE Asia, presented Vice Admiral Dato’ Pahlawan Hj Mohamad Adib bin Abdul Samad, Western Fleet Commander of the Royal Malaysian Navy, with a plaque during a ceremony held at the Royal Malaysian Navy’s Lumut base. This significant milestone highlights the professionalism of both the air crew and maintenance personnel who have flown and maintained these helicopters over the years both at Lumut and whilst deployed aboard Royal Malaysian Navy ships.

Lorenzo Pariani said at the ceremony “The arrival of the Super Lynx helicopters gave the Royal Malaysian Navy a massive increase in capability, in fact at the time they were the most advanced and capable naval helicopters in their weight class worldwide. It is testament to the professionalism of the Royal Malaysian Navy that they have now reached 10,000 flying hours whilst protecting Malaysia’s national interests and supporting international maritime security operations. We look forward to continuing our long and successful collaboration with the Royal Malaysian Navy.”

The Royal Malaysian Navy took delivery of their first Super Lynx in 2003 with the other five aircraft following in 2004. The aircraft are equipped to perform a wide range of roles including anti-surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare, maritime and coastal surveillance, over the horizon targeting and a number of secondary roles.

The introduction of the Super Lynx into Royal Malaysian Navy service greatly enhanced its maritime capabilities and the aircraft have now participated in more than 100 national and multinational exercises. The aircraft have made a significant contribution to anti-piracy operations in the Straits of Malacca, South China Sea and the Gulf of Aden, as well as protecting the East coast of Sabah against intruders.

The Royal Malaysian Navy were the first customer for the Super Lynx with the new more powerful CTS800 engines, which have equipped all subsequent Super Lynx customer’s aircraft and now power the new generation AW159 multi-role maritime helicopter.