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World Defense & Security News - France
 
 
France’s Defence Procurement Agency orders 7 additional Tigre combat helicopters
 
The French Defense Procurement Agency (DGA) ordered on December 17, 2015, seven additional Tigre combat helicopters from Airbus Helicopters. This new batch of Tigres has been ordered under the Military Planning Law 2014-2019, which has been updated on July 2015. Deliveries are scheduled for 2017-2018.
     
France Defence Procurement Agency orders 7 aditionnal Tigre combat helicopter 640 001A French Army's Tigre HAD combat helicopter
     
This new order was made through the Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (OCCAR). With this acquisition, the French Armed Forces will have 67 Tigre combat helicopters in service. It aims to reinforce French armed forces capabilities to perform air-land operations, especially in the Sahel-Saharan strip.

For now, 55 Tigres have been delivered to the French Army, among them 40 in HAP (Support and Escort Helicopter) variant, which will be upgraded to the HAD variant (Support and Destruction Helicopter).

The Tiger HAD helicopters for France are armed with eight Lockheed Martin Hellfire II air-to-ground missiles. Hellfire II has a semi-active laser seeker and range of over 8km. In addition, HAD is armed with one Nexter 30mm cannon turret, 70mm rockets and four Mistral air-to-air missiles. HAD helicopters is also be equipped with the Sagem Strix roof-mounted sight.