Turbomeca Celebrates 1 Million Hours With USCG

Last December, Turbomeca celebrated a milestone with one of its best customers, the U.S. Coast Guard. At theUSCG Aviation Logistics Center in Elizabeth City, N.C., the company marked 1 million hours of operation for its Arriel 2C2-CG engine installed on the Coast Guard’s fleet of MH-65 Dolphin helicopters. In 2004, the USCGbegan re-engining its MH-65s with the Turbomeca turboshaft, ultimately taking delivery of 225 engines. The last one entered service in 2007.

The re-engining was part of the Coast Guard’s Deepwater program, in which the Dolphins are tasked with several diverse maritime missions. They include search-and-rescue; law enforcement; environmental response; and maritime surveillance. In all, Turbomeca has delivered more than 1,100 of the 700- to 1,000-shp Arriel engines to the U.S. military and other agencies. Assembled by subsidiary Turbomeca USA in Grand Prairie, Texas, the engines are supported by Turbomeca’s Service By the Hour (SBH) program, which provides predictable costs per hour of operation. Overall, the company has produced more than 12,000 Arriels, which have flown a collective 45 million hours, powering more than 40 different rotorcraft types, according to Turbomeca.