The Ivorian Air Force (Force Aérienne de la Côte d’Ivoire (FACI)) has taken delivery of the first of two new Beechcraft B300 King Air 360. Both aircraft were ordered last year by the Forces Armées de Côte d’Ivoire (FACI) .
The Beechcraft B300 King Air 360 arrived in Abidjan on April 20 2024. German aeronautical engineering company Aerodata integrated it’s cutting-edge ISR technologies onto the two Beechcraft King Air aircraft in Braunschweig.
The Beechcraft Super King Air family is part of a line of twin-turboprop aircraft produced by Beechcraft. The Super King Air family has been in continuous production since 1974. The King Air 300 has a maximum range of 1570 miles and a maximum speed of 368 mph.
The new aircraft was spotted with call sign TU-VMF – the new registration (formerly “D-CIVB”), and will join another Beechcraft C90 King Air that arrived in June 2022. The newly acquired aircraft are designed to combat piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, and will work in tandem with the recently acquired Delair DT-26 surveillance drones. The second aircraft is scheduled for delivery at the end of the year.
Aerodata integrated it’s cutting-edge AeroMission system on to the aircraft. The system is modular and can be configured according to customer requirements. AeroMission integrates various sensors, effectors and communication systems. At its core is the AeroMission software, which networks all system components with each other, generates information from the data available in the network, stores it, displays it and distributes it.
The Ivorian Beechcraft B300 King Air 360 was also fitted with Aerodata ‘s OctoPod which is mounted underneath the aircraft fuselage, and enables multi-sensor-based maritime surveillance missions from the air. It was fitted with minimal space requirements in the cabin and little effort for aircraft modification.
The All-in-One Airborne Surveillance Pod the OctoPod is a unique belly-mounted airborne surveillance pod jointly developed by AERODATA and its subsidiary OPTIMARE. It enables multi-sensor-based airborne surveillance operations while minimizing space consumption and costs for aircraft modification and certification. The OctoPod interfaces to the mission systems AeroMission® and MEDUSA®.
Meanwhile, in May, the United States and the European Union pledged their continued support for the Ivorian Military. The European Union (EU) is to support the country’s armed forces by way of a €15 million Euro “assistance measure”.