The Latvian State Border Guard (Valsts Robežsardze) has signed a contract with Leonardo S.p.A. for the purchase of three medium-class multi-role helicopters worth €80 million. The contract was signed by the Deputy Chief of the State Border Guard (Chief of the Main Directorate) General Juris Martukāns and the Leonardo sales manager for Eastern Europe Tommaso Maria Piatti.

The quoted value suggests the acquisition is three AW139s, but the type has not been named by the OEM or the customer.

The contract is part of the European Union’s SAFE programme, and includes not only the aircraft but also their initial maintenance, the supply of maintenance equipment and training. Speaking on the sidelines of the contract signing, Guntis Pujats, head of the Latvian Border Guard, stated: “The signing of this contract is an important and historic moment. The security situation in the region requires modern and multi-purpose solutions. The new helicopters will significantly strengthen the operational capabilities of the Border Guard and enable a more effective response to both hybrid threats and crisis situations, as well as day-to-day tasks.”

The SAFE (Security Action For Europe) programme was adopted by the EU in May 2025, and is the organisation’s new financial instrument designed to provide financial support to Member States to speed up defence readiness by allowing urgent and major investments in support of the European defence industry, with a focus on closing critical capability gaps. SAFE provides competitively priced, long-maturity loans to Member States requesting financial assistance for investments in defence capabilities. These loans will finance urgent and large-scale procurement efforts, ensuring that Europe’s defence industry can deliver the necessary equipment when it is needed most.

The contract signing event was also attended by

• the Head of the State Border Guard, General Guntis Pujāts
• the State Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior, Dimitrijs Trofimovs
• the Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior, Kaspars Āboliņš
• Brigadier General Antonio Vivolo, Director of the Global Air Combat Programme at the Armaments Directorate of the Italian Ministry of Defence
• the Italian Defence Attaché, Colonel Giovanni Trebisonda
• the Italian Ambassador to Latvia, H.E. Alessandro Monti.

Helicopter marketing intelligence company Parapex Media advises that the existing helicopter fleet of the State Border Guard numbers six with two examples of three types – AB206, AW119MKII and AW109E. They are mainly used to ensure the functions of the State Border Guard: control of the state border, border zone and border regime, surveillance of the state border at sea, territorial sea and internal waters, search, pursuit and detention of border violators, as well as combating cross-border crime.  The most recent deliveries where the AW119s in 2019.