December 2, 2005 at 9:07 am
ROmania will buy 30 new helicopters in 2006 for patrol duties on its Eastern border and Black Sea area. Romania already has 24 SOCAt anti tank helicopters, a few old Mi 8, some Dauphin, a couple of dozens of old Alouette and some dozens Puma fort the army for troop transportaton It is now launching (http://www.gandul.info) an international tender. Since Romania is expected to join the EU in 2007 or 2008, its Eastern border with Ukraine and Moldova (a former romanian province but with a secessionnist part ruled by a pro russian government) will become the EU border. The helicopters will be used for light reco, police duties , commandos transportaton for rapid intervention so it is expected that some of them will be equipped with light weapons, some with electronic survelliance equipments. Main threat on the 2000 km border is human trafficking, weapon smugglers from the East. The buyer is the ROmanian Ministry of Interior which has border patrol and anti terrorist troops, not the army.
What mix would you use ?(light, medium helicopters)