Marubeni And AgustaWestland Sign Spares Support Agreement

AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica company, is pleased to announce the signing of an agreement with Marubeni Aerospace Corporation of Tokyo, Japan to establish a Spare Parts Depot in Japan to support the MCH-101 and CH-101 helicopters operated by the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force. The agreement, which includes aircraft spare parts that will be held in the new depot, was signed by Giacomo Saponaro, Senior Vice-President of AgustaWestland’s International Business Unit and Shigeru Ohashi, President & CEO of Marubeni Aerospace at the Paris Air Show today.

This initiative will improve the availability of spare parts and reduce delivery times, enhancing the levels of local support for the customer’s fleet of helicopters. The Spare Parts Depot has been privately funded and will operate initially for a period of five years, giving the customer rapid access too many line items to ensure maximum aircraft availability. Following a teaming agreement signed by AgustaWestland, Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Marubeni in 1994, AgustaWestland and Marubeni entered into a general consultancy and distributorship agreement in 2002 for the promotion and sales of the AW101. The first of 14 MCH-101 (Airborne Mine Counter Measures) and CH-101 (Antarctic Support) helicopters was delivered to the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) in 2003.

Currently two MCH-101 and one CH-101 are in service with the JMSDF with a second CH-101 scheduled to be delivered to the customer by end of June 2009. Both CH-101 aircraft will be embarked upon the new JMSDF icebreaker Shirase on her first deployment to the Antarctic in November 2009.