Norway has vast experience in international medical evacuation operations throughout the region and with the ever-growing requirements for repatriation and peace-keeping missions, the need to upgrade the Norweigan "flying ambulance" to integrate specialist ambulances became paramount.
Our Operational Test & Evaluation specialists ensured the new power supply from the Hercules, synced up with the ambulance in-flight, ensured the intercom connections to the new aircraft fit and tested for potential interference with aircraft systems from the ambulance's high voltage medical equipment.
The ambulance also had five medical crew that are to support surgical tasks in transit to be integrated into the system to ensure they can support high-intensity emergency surgical tasks in transit including total heart and lung bypasses, amongst others.
The local ambulance center has a national coverage responsibility, which requires close support from 335 Sqn. This means that high-dependency patients can be airlifted to an appropriate specialist hospital without high-risk transfers between different ambulances.
Previously Nova Systems has supported testing HEMS for the AW101 SAR aircraft, but this is a whole lot bigger and gives a whole new meaning to Air Ambulance.
All tests were successful, and both the ambulance service and squadron were delighted with the results.