Leonardo has signed a contract with the Guardia di Finanza worth approximately 44 million euros for the supply of an ATR 72MP and the related technical and training support services. The contract, signed following the award of a European call for tenders, also defines subsequent options that would bring the overall value of the agreement up to approximately 250 million euros. The first delivery will be made in 2019.
Alessandro Profumo, Managing Director of Leonardo, said: we are proud of the renewed trust granted to us by the Guardia di Finanza, which already uses our aircraft and helicopters. The ATR 72MP, developed and produced starting from the platform of the modern ATR 72-600 turboprop airliner, is an aircraft that expresses Leonardo's capabilities very well both in terms of systems and in terms of platform. It is equipped with the latest generation of communication and data transmission systems and can transmit and receive real-time information with command and control centers on land or on platforms, both in flight and at sea, for coordination and maximum efficiency of operations ".
The 72MP ATR will be integrated into the air ambulance device of the Guardia di Finanza, within the multiple roles assigned to the Corps by the current regulatory framework. The Guardia di Finanza is the only Police Force with a general competence able to exert an incisive and constant vigilance activity along the whole national coastal development and in international waters, also thanks to the advanced technological equipment installed on its own air vehicles.
Peculiar features of the latest generation installed for the first time on the ATR72MP will be useful to support specific surveillance activities entrusted to the Guardia di Finanza.
The ATR-72MP will operate in aeronautical and search patrol missions, using on-board sensors to identify and identify, even in a discrete manner, sensitive targets, monitor their behavior, acquire sources of evidence, guide the intervention of naval units and patrols on the ground.
The 72MP ATR - already in service with the Italian Armed Forces in a military version called P-72A - is equipped with the Leonardo ATOS modular mission system (Airborne Tactical Observation and Surveillance). ATOS manages the broad spectrum of aircraft sensors, combining the information received in an overall tactical situation and presenting the results to the mission system operators in the most suitable format, providing an excellent and constantly updated scenario of the situation.
Thanks to its commercial derivation, the ATR 72MP can guarantee its crew a level of ergonomics that increases its efficiency and effectiveness during maritime patrol missions, search and identification missions, SAR (search and rescue) missions, fight drug trafficking, piracy, smuggling and the protection of territorial waters, which can typically last longer than 8 hours.
