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SA 330 Puma
AS 532 Cougar

The Puma medium lift helicopter was in production until 1987 featuring many roles including military and civilian. Used in the army as a troop carrier it could seat twelve occupants. As a civilian based helicopter the Puma could seat twenty passengers. A total of 696 Puma's had been sold by the end of manufacture although they are still produced in Romania. The Puma was built by the EUROCOPTER Group, owned 70% by AEROSPATIALE France and 30% by Daimler Aerospace (DASA) of Germany.

The Cougar name was adopted for all military variants, and in 1990, all Super Puma designations were changed from AS 332 to AS 532 to distinguish between civil and military variants. The Cougar was designed to provide high performance, ease of deployment, low operating cost, comfort, plus high mission readiness. For military use and adapting to modern battlefield conditions, it features survivability, suitability for tactical flight thanks to exceptional manoeuvrability, low observability, low vulnerability to projectiles, crashworthiness. A multirole helicopter, the Cougar can be armed with machine-guns and pod-mounted cannons, with rockets, or with antisubmarine or antisurface weapon systems to suit different mission requirements. Additional missions include: VIP transport, electronic warfare, and anti-submarine warfare.

The large, four-blade main rotor is mounted above center of fuselage on a hump. Two turboshaft engines are mounted on top of the fuselage midsection, giving the helicopter a humpbacked appearance. The fuselage is long, rectangular, upswept, with a tapered rear section, a rounded, stepped-up, glassed-in cockpit and retractable landing gear. Swept-back and tapered tail fin mounts a rotor on the right and a tapered, single flat on left top of the fin.

VARIANTS

• SA 330 Puma: Developed in the late 1960s by Aerospatiale in France. Others were built in the UK, Indonesia, Romania.
• AS 532 Cougar Mk I UC/AC is a military version with a short fuselage capable of carrying 21 commandos, which can be fitted with equipment for maximum efficiency in all theaters of operation: radar or missile detector, decoy-launcher. Moreover, its optional equipment make it truly multi-purpose: winch, projector, specific equipment for SAR missions, or, for instance, crashworthy seats, IR camera, NVG compatible cockpit for special missions. The AC version is the armed version and can be equipped with side-mounted machine-guns and axial pods fitted with either 20-mm guns or 68-mm rocket-launchers.

• AS 332 Super Puma: Differs from the SA 330 Puma through an improved rotor system, upgraded engines, stretched fuselage, and a modified nose shape.
• AS-532 Cougar Mk I UE is the basic version with long fuselage of the military Cougar MK1 range. The aircraft can transport 25 commandos in addition to the crew (1 chief of stick + 24 troop seats). For tactical transport and logistical support missions the Cougar UE is offered "ready for use". Its standard configuration includes a minimum of radio (2 VHF/AM,TRANSPONDER, ICS...) and navigation (VOR, ADF, D.M.E., GPS...) equipment performing tasks, military operators normally require.
• AS 532 Cougar Mk I UL/AL is the "long" version which can carry up to 25 commandos or 6 injured passengers lying down and 10 other people. Like the other versions, it is capable of lifting 4.5 tons on a sling. The Horizon battlefield ground surveillance system can be installed on the AS 532 UL.
• AS 532 Cougar Mk I SC is the naval version of the Cougar, and its main missions are the following: anti-surface unit warface (ASUW) fitted with AM 39 missiles, anti-submarine warfare (ASW) with a variable-depth sonar and torpedoes, and search and rescue and sea patrols.

• AS 532 Cougar Mk II U2 A2 helicopter has the biggest cabin volume in its category : 29 commandos or 12 stretchers with medical equipment, and is capable of carrying 5 tons on the sling. This 1992 version is the longest variant of the Cougar line. It has an improved Spheriflex rotor system with only 4x tail rotor blades, and 2x 2,100-shp Turbomeca Makila 1A2 turboshaft engines that allow an increased cargo carrying capability. It can transport 29 troops or 12 litters, or an external load of 5,000 kg. Primarily used for combat search and rescue, and as an armed version. It may be armed additionally with a 20-mm cannon or pintle-mounted .50 caliber machine guns. Its basic design with screens in the cockpit and a 4-axis autopilot with built-in coupler makes it possible to reduce the crew workload and increase its safety for tactical flight by the same degree.
• AS 535 Cougar Mk II A2 RESCO : The main mission of the A2 RESCO is to recover aircrews downed in combat areasplant (RESCO is the French acronym for Combat Search and Rescue or CSAR). For very long range operations, the CSAR Cougar Mk 2 can operate at a higher alternate gross weight of 11,200 kg compared to its normal maximum mission weight of 9,750 kg. With this enhanced capability, the Cougar can rescue two crew members 400 nautical miles away.

AS 532UL Cougar Mk I UL/Horizon

	First flight :	1994 ( demonstrated during the operations in the Gulf in 1991)
	In-service in the French Army :	Deliveries between 1996 and 1998
	Special equipment :	Moving Target Indicator radar (Thomson-CSF), scanning a 20,000 km² zone in 10 seconds High jamming resistance
	Major operational capabilities :	Detection and localisation of vehicles, boats and helicopters up to 200 km In real time, protected transmission of data to the ground and on-board exploitation Air deployable ground station
	NATO interoperability :	Proposed system for the future NATO Ground Surveillance program Demonstrated interoperability with the US J-STARS
	French Army inventory :	4 helicopters and 2 ground stations
	Typical mission	Radar recce of mobiles (detection of vehicules moving in Kosovo), intelligence transmitted in real time to the command center.

Puma / Cougar Mk I UC/AC

Super Puma / Cougar

Sources and Resources

• Eurocopter Corporate Homepage

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