The rotorcraft with side numbers 80 and 81 were received by Vice-Commander Colonel Zoltán Rolkó on the airbase. In the framework of the National Defence and Armed Forces Development Program, the Ministry of Defence concluded contracts for the delivery of 16 helicopters of this type in December 2018. With the now-delivered rotorcraft, six helicopters have already been commissioned. The Hungarian type certification of the helicopters started in 2021, during which special attention was paid to the characteristics of the configuration, so these medium-lift helicopters have expressly been manufactured to fulfil the needs of the Hungarian Defence Forces.
The bulk of the H225M fleet will be assigned troop and cargo airlift as their core mission, while according to plan, the capabilities provided by the existing medium transport helicopters will continue to be available and will even be developed. With the use of integrated onboard weapon systems, the rest of the helicopters – besides retaining the transport capability – will be deployable against soft-skinned combat vehicles and also in support of the special operations forces.
As a result of a decades-long process, the tactical transport helicopters were developed under the designation EC725 Caracal as the specialized rotary-wing aircraft of the French Air Force dedicated to flying Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) missions. Their serial production started in 2000, the maiden flight of the type took place in the same year, and they entered service five years later. The maximum take-off weight of the helicopter is 11,200 kilograms. It has two pilots and can carry a maximum of 28 troops, which is more than helicopters of similar categories (the maximum seating capacity of the Mi-17 helicopters is 24 troops, while the NH90s can carry a maximum of 20 troops) For the first time in their history, the state-of-the-art rotorcraft have received the special H-Force weapon system in accordance with Hungarian military needs.
