Selex ES, a Finmeccanica company, has been awarded a contract worth €8.1M (£6.8M) from the UK Ministry of Defence to supply further Titan 385ES-HD electro-optic turrets for the Royal Air Force’s fleet of CH-47 Chinook transport helicopters.

The contract follows the successful delivery of 45 Titan turrets procured under previous contracts and will see 15 extra turrets ordered. The overall supply of 60 Titan turrets will equip the current and planned future fleet of RAF Chinooks. The contract includes the supply of first line test equipment with deliveries starting in 2014.

Selex ES Optronics & Communication Systems Marketing Vice President, Mark Byfield, said: “The Titan turret gives crews a major operational advantage in situational awareness, but the technology inside Titan is only part of the story behind this contract. A key reason for the success of this programme has been our close working relationship with the MoD in achieving on-time delivery on our previous Titan contracts. We’ve been able to work very effectively side by side with the end users and fine tune the Titan turret to work exactly how they need it to work to achieve mission success”.

Developed by the company under co-funding from the MoD, the Titan turret features a High Resolution SLX Merlin medium waveband infrared (IR) camera which uses Albion thermal imaging technology to offer high resolution night vision capability to the aircrew. It has been successfully proven in combat as part of ongoing coalition operations in a number of international theatres.