TWO new Leonardo helicopters costing a total of £20 million have gone into service with the Coastguard in Hampshire.

The AW189 helicopters will be based at Solent Airport, in Lee-on-the-Solent, and will replace a single AW139.

Like their predecessor, the new helicopters are painted in traditional red and white HM Coastguard colours but will be operated by Bristow Helicopters Limited on behalf of the Coastguard.

The Coastguard base at Lee is the first in the UK to fly this new model of the helicopter for Search and Rescue (SAR) missions.

The two new helicopters will cover an area roughly from Weymouth in the west to Eastbourne in the east.

Lee has two aircraft as the Portland station closed down last year.

Damien Oliver, assistant director of aviation at the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said: “We are excited to add these new AW189 helicopters to our Coastguard helicopter fleet. These are some of the most technologically advanced helicopters providing lifesaving services in the world today.

“The crews that will fly the new helicopters, and the engineers that maintain them, will continue to demonstrate the utmost professionalism and dedication to the work of saving lives here in the south of England.”

The Leonardo AW189 is a larger than the AW139.

Russell Torbet, director of UK Search and Rescue at Bristow Helicopters Ltd, said: “We are very pleased that Bristow is returning to Lee-on-the-Solent which we previously operated on behalf of the Coastguard from 1988 until 2007. Our transition team has been at Lee-On-Solent since January, continuing their training on the AW189 and preparing for this handover. They are ready to go.”

In 2013, Bristow won the UK Government national contract to deliver SAR operations on behalf of the MCA.