The procurement of the two new H 145 helicopters for the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania State Police together with the State of Lower Saxony is in full swing . “We are making rapid progress in the modernization of our state police. Now that the key technical data and the equipment required by the police have been determined, the new design has now been finalized” said Interior Minister Christian Pegel.

When designing the helicopters, one of the things to consider was that the use of the blue base color clearly identifies them as police equipment. This is supported by the large-scale “POLICE” lettering with a modern design. The striking lettering was already used on the previous model, the Eurocopter EC 135, and has made the state police’s police helicopters known nationwide since their introduction in 1999.

The new design was developed in a joint coordination process by the project group responsible for procurement with employees of the current helicopter squadron and the MV Ministry of the Interior.

“The new police helicopters will make police work even more efficient. Thanks to the larger cabin and the greater range, we can also use the new helicopters to transport groups of special forces, for example, or to pick up several people via the rescue hoist. The technical preparations for cell phone tracking are on board. And for our police in a coastal country, it is of course a great advantage that the new H145s are also fully seaworthy,” says the minister, adding:

“The helicopters can also transport water or extinguishing agents using additional containers that can be mounted, thus supporting the fire service from the air. This is particularly helpful in the case of fires in hard-to-reach or remote areas where conventional methods may be limited. They are intended to provide support in particular in the case of forest fires, which have become more and more frequent and severe in our country in recent years.”

Joint procurement saves effort, time and money. The Lower Saxony Logistics Center took over the procurement process for both states, as it had already started preparing the helicopter procurement for Lower Saxony. “Making major purchases together always offers immense advantages. That is why we want to continue to use cooperation with other federal states in our procurement whenever it makes sense,” explains Interior Minister Christian Pegel.

image © Landeswasserschutzpolizeiamt MV