EC 665 TIGER

Main combat helicopter of the German, French, Spanish and Australian armies, the Tiger (its official name since the creation of Airbus Helicopters) first took to the air in 1991, following a development period that lasted more than fifteen years since the start of the French-German cooperation. Indeed, the EC 665 was the main driving force paving the way to the creation of Eurocopter which was eventually created to seal this bilateral cooperation. The definition of the production variant took a few more years and the first helicopters were delivered to the French and German forces from 2003 on, just when a French-German school was created in Le Luc en Provence to train the future crews.

Since then, the Tiger has been deployed in Afghanistan, it demonstrated high availability and efficiency during Operation Harmattan in Libya, and has fought in Somalia, Mali and Central African Republic. Despite many deployments, accidents have been fairly rare, even though, alas, in 2019 an air collision between a Tiger and a Cougar killed thirteen French Special Forces in Mali. Sold to Spain and Australia, the Tiger is still the subject of export prospects in several countries, potentially for some large contracts such as in Mexico or Poland. 

The Tiger in its two main variants (HAP and UHT) still needs further developments to be brought to new standards of armament and power. The subject of this book focusses on the EC665 Tiger HAP (Helicopter Support Protection), the most built of the Tigers and the one that has seen the most combats, in Afghanistan and over Libya. With more than 300 close-up photos, camouflage drawings, details of the weaponry and a list of all the models and after-market accessories, this book is the essential source for any modeller wishing to build an accurate scale model of the Tiger.

We thank EFA Tiger and Sirpa-Terre.