Patria Received a Serial Order for Upgrades of Hawk Jet Trainers

(January 27, 2009) -- Patria Aviation Oy received an order from the Finnish Air Force for a cockpit upgrade of 11 BAES Hawk Mk 51 and Mk52 jet trainers on 30 December 2008. The total value of the order is over EUR 10 million. The upgraded trainers will be delivered during 2009 -2010.

The Finnish Air Force and Patria agreed on the system modernisation of the Hawk jet trainers in December 2006 in order to further increase the quality of fighter training by creating mission planning, recording and debriefing capabilities. The first Hawk jet trainer modernised by Patria with the modern avionics and a glass cockpit successfully performed its first flight in Jamsa, Finland on 23 September 2008.

The Finnish Air Force has announced to upgrade also the 18 BAES Hawk Mk66 jet trainers purchased from Switzerland in summer 2007, which accumulates the number of modernised aircraft up to 30.

Patria has maintained the Finnish Hawks during their entire life-span as well as performed significant modification projects. The Finnish Air Force and Patria are together surveying possibilities to offer pilot training also to foreign pilots in the Kauhava, Finland based training centre as well as possibilities to sell the excess Hawk trainers to foreign customers.

Source : Patria Oyj