Kawasaki Heavy Industries has announced that it has delivered two EC145 helicopters to the National Police Agency in its native Japan. These will be the first EC145s to be used by the National Police Agency, and are replacements of existing helicopters deployed by the Police in the prefectures of Kanagawa and Chiba.

The EC145 is, of coure, a development of the BK117 which Kawasaki started to develop with MBB before that German manufacturer became the German part of Eurocopter, and more recently renamed as Airbus Helicopters Deutschland.  The EC145 with a standard tail rotor is certified as the BK117C2, and the fenestron H145 (ex EC145T2) is the BK117D2.

To this day, the cabin frame on every helicopter in the 117/145 family is made in Japan by Kawasaki, with the vast majority then shipped to Germany for the main production line.

German production to date has seen 253 117 A and B models, 55 C-1, 750 C-2 (EC145) and 80 D-2 (H145/EC145T2) helicopters.

By comparison, the Kawasaki factory in Japan has built 135 A, B and C-1 airframes and 39 of the newer C-2 (EC145) model to date.

Jeremy Parkin – HeliHub.com