Libya Signs Order for ATR-42MP Maritime Patrol Aircraft

Alenia Aeronautica, ROME: Alenia Aeronautica, a Finmeccanica company, has signed a contract with the Libyan Interiors Ministry, worth about €31 millions, for the supply of one maritime patrol ATR-42MP aircraft. The contract includes pilots and systems operators training, logistic support and spare parts. 
 
The aircraft will be delivered during 2009 and will be used by the Libyan General Security agency for the control of the territorial waters and search & rescue and marine environment safeguard. 
 
The Libyan ATR-42MP will have a configuration similar to the aircrafts in service with the Italian Coast Guard and will be equipped with a mission system which includes, in addition to the research radar, also an electro-optical sensor and the capability of air-dropping equipment for sea rescue. 
 
The ATR 42 MP is the maritime patrol version of the regional transport aircraft ATR 42 – currently the world’s most successful turboprop regional aircraft family – ad-hoc designed, developed and manufactured by Alenia Aeronautica. 
 
The aircraft is capable of accomplishing, at extremely low operational costs, maritime patrol roles such as: sea surveillance; search & rescue; sea-pollution monitoring in case of ecological disasters such as, for example, pollution by oil and chemical substances; national waters and economic exclusive zones control. 
 
The ATR-42MP – 9 have been ordered in total – is already in service in Italy with the Customs Police (3 aircraft plus a fourth on order), and with the Coast Guard (2 aircraft)) and has also recently been ordered by the Nigerian Air Force (2 aircraft). 
 
This Lybian agreement follows the one signed in January 2006 for 10 AgustaWestland A109 Power helicopters, in a configuration custom made for frontiers control, for the value of about EUR 80 million. The agreement also confirms the role of Libya as key partner for the Finmeccanica companies, strongly committed in the updating of the Libyan system for the control of its own maritime and land boundaries, fact considered a key element in the new collaboration phase between the North African country and the European Union.