A NEW multi-million-pound rescue helicopter is to take to the skies above Hampshire.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency has announced the arrival of a new and improved helicopter for the county’s search and rescue service.

From this month the south coast will welcome a £20 million AW189 helicopter and in April a second will be in operation.

The Agusta Westland AW189 is a twin-engine, medium-lift helicopter manufactured by Leonardo-Finmeccanica, an Italian aerospace, defence and security company.

This is the first of two AW189s that will operate from the Coastguard base at Lee-on-Solent. It will spend the next few months flying in the area on training missions before it starts operational duties.

The new AW189 helicopters will be registered as G-MCGS and G-MCGO, and are operated by Bristow Helicopters Ltd on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

Bristow Helicopters Limited fully took over the UK’s Coastguard search and rescue service in April 1, 2015 as part of a privatisation programme, however they had already been operating in parts of the country.

The service had previously been run for the last 70 years in much of the country by the RAF and Royal Navy.

Bristow secured a 10-year, £1.9 billion deal with the UK Government to deliver search and rescue helicopter operations on behalf of HM Coastguard from 10 bases.

Seven of those bases are already operational, with HM Coastguard having taken responsibility from the Ministry of Defence.

The remaining three bases which include Lee-on-Solent, are set to become part of the new contract in April of this year.

Lee on Solent’s current search and rescue service is provided by CHC Helicopters and use the ten-year-old AW 139 helicopters which had been in use since 2007. 

Prior to this Coastguard used Sikorsky S16’s helicopters which were similar to the aging Westland Sea Kings that the Royal Navy used when they ran the service.

The new helicopters will be able to fly faster, at 145 knots or 155mph, and further than the current models and will have ‘ice protection’ which enables them to fly in colder weather and more hazardous conditions.

The newer models are can also fit two stretchers easily whereas that would be a challenge with the present model.

A Coastguard spokesman said: “This new technology will enhance the Coastguards ability to provide search and rescue services across the south coast of the UK.

"Improvements in technology will include being able to fly further and faster and they will be equipped with the last high-definition cameras and night vision goggles.”

The Lee-on-Solent Coastguard base provides a search and rescue service for an area of the south coast from East Sussex to west Dorset. The nearest other bases are Portland which closes in July, Newquay in Cornwall and a new base at Lydd in Kent.

Annually the Lee on Solent base flies on average more than 200 search and rescue missions and from July to September last year they flew 66 missions from the base.