Kaman to deliver two manned K-MAX helicopters to China’s Lectern

China’s Lectern Aviation Supplies has awarded a contract to Kaman Aerospace Group (Kaman) for two manned K-MAX heavy-lift utility helicopters.

The new helicopters, which are scheduled for delivery in 2017, will be deployed by China Department of Forestry for fire fighting missions.

Lectern Sales director Simon Lau said: "The K-MAX has proven itself worldwide as a very reliable, low-maintenance helicopter with high availability rates, attributes that will help meet China’s growing demand for a responsive, heavy-lift, utility helicopter."

Kaman Air Vehicles and MRO division K-MAX Helicopter Programmes Business Development director Terry Fogarty said: "This agreement with Lectern represents the continued growth of confidence in the K-MAX helicopter from customers around the world.

"We are confident that customers in China will appreciate the reliability and high, hot performance of the K-MAX helicopter demanded by fire fighting missions.

"The Chinese market possesses significant market potential for the K-MAX and we are working to capitalize on these additional opportunities."

The K-MAX helicopters feature aerial lift capabilities which allow them to be deployed around the world for fire fighting, logging and other missions.

The US Marine Corps fleet comprises of two unmanned K-MAX aircraft that integrates Lockheed’s advanced mission suite and its electro-optic/infrared (EO/IR) camera helps in locating hot spots and assigns the location to its operator for water drops at that location.

According to Kaman Group, the aircraft supported the US Marine Corps in Afghanistan for 33 months and carried over 4.5 million pounds of cargo for a period of three years.