The Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) has recently signed the contract for the provision of the second maritime patrol aircraft, funded from the 2010 External Borders Fund (EBF).

This is the fourth contract signing utilising funding from the EU’s EBF framework. The project is co-financed with 75% of the funds being sourced from the EBF and remaining 25% being allocated from the Maltese Government. The global sum allocated to this project was that of €9.696 million. The contract was signed between Brigadier Martin G Xuereb – Commander AFM, Mr. Hans J. Stahl – President Aerodata AG and Mr. Francis Attard – Director General Contracts.

This AFM-operated aircraft will augment the current fixed wing fleet and will perform an additional role in the protection of the Southern external borders of the EU, through missions which include detection, identification and coordination operations. In a secondary function, the aircraft will perform search and rescue flights.

This contract is an option to the first contract that the AFM signed with the Germany Company Aerodata AG in October 2009 for the supply of a fully equipped new King Air B200, complete with integrated systems, training and a service support package. The new contract with Aerodata is for the supply of an identical aircraft equipped with the same mission systems and includes also additional training and an extension on the maintenance agreement.

The KingAir B200 is an aircraft manufactured by Hawker Beech Corporation, based in Wichita, USA. Aerodata, as the prime contractor will again handle the complete process chain to provide a fully equipped aircraft. The specialised mission system equipment, sourced from Europe and America, integrates a Telephonics RDR 1700B 360° belly mounted radar, a Wescam MX 15i Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) system, SAR direction finder plus a number of other sensors and communication equipment, including satellite communication and data transmission. The aircraft will be modified at the Aerodata’s facilities at Braunschweig airport.

The AFM will take delivery of this aircraft in March 20121. The first KingAir is expected to be delivered in February 20110. A number of Officers and men have already been trained on the aircraft and system. Aircraft related training is performed Pilots and technicians are being trained on type in Wichita, USA; while mission equipment training is carried out at Aerodata’s facilities in Germany.

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