The operational capabilities of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) have been extended with the acquisition of a new Bell 412 EPI helicopter.
The helicopter was manufactured in 2018 by Bell Textron Inc, an American aerospace manufacturer headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, and is suited for missions and operations in the context of the Guyana terrain.
The twin-engine powered aircraft, which was purchased in January, comes with a three-year 1,000 flight hour warranty and additional insurance should there be a need for maintenance at a short notice.
It can accommodate 13 passengers and can engage in a variety of missions including search and rescue, offshore patrol operations, tactical insertion and extraction of ranks, humanitarian missions, and VIP transport.
The aircraft, which landed at Base Camp Ayanganna for the first time yesterday afternoon, was welcomed with a ceremonial water cannon salute courtesy of the Guyana Fire Service.
Delivering his feature address at the welcoming ceremony yesterday, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces President Irfaan Ali described the purchase of the helicopter as the beginning of a new era.
“With this acquisition, comes a new era of training, an upgrading era of development. It brings with it new potentials, new capacity, and these are things we have to celebrate too,” Ali said.
He said the aircraft will not only enhance the country’s national security but also improve the efficiency of the GDF.
Ali disclosed said that the government is also moving towards the acquisition of new marine asset to support the work of the Coast Guard, which in turn will complement the new aircraft’s missions.
A team will be departing on Monday to inspect and analyse various marine asset options.
“And this is the beginning. We have to analyse the new requirement of our security sector with our development path. Indeed, we have a lot more economic assets to protect, we will have a larger economy, we will have more sophisticated types of criminal activities to deal with and all of this requires a modern looking security architecture and that is what we are building,” Ali explained.
Ali declared that this is an “exciting” time to be part of the GDF, while assuring that the government will support the physical assets and human resources of the force.
He also stressed on the importance of diplomacy and partnership, without which he said the acquisition would not have been possible.
Chief-of-Staff Brigadier Godfrey Bess in his remarks said that the modern security architecture arrives at a time when the nation is faced with escalating threats from neighbouring Venezuela.
“It is an important moment that will result in enhanced delivery of services to the nation particularly as it relates to aviation security,” he said.
With the asset, Bess noted, there will be enhanced air support to the nation. “Operationally, we will be better able to engage in troop movement in far flung regions, perform causality evacuation, medical evacuation, flight and rescue missions, and training,” he said.
In terms of national security, he added that the helicopter is a “significant” tool to enhance the effectiveness of internal security and Joint Services operations.
In providing an insight, Lieutenant Colonel Bourne said in late November, 2020, government approved a team to conduct a pre-purchase inspection on two Bell 412 helicopters in US.
According to Bourne, several studies, comparisons and analyses were done by GDF on the current helicopter types in order to determine which is best suited for its purposes and mission.
The studies, he said, determined that the Bell helicopter was the “most” suitable particularly when it is considered in the context of the required mission and the terrain within which the GDF operates
