A helicopter landing on the flight deck of BNS Abu Ubaidah for the first time. (Bangladesh Navy)
The Bangladesh Navy has marked the first landing of a helicopter on one of its Jiangwei II (Type 053H3)-class frigates, the service disclosed in a 14 March statement via its official social media pages.
This milestone was marked on the second-of-class BNS Abu Ubaidah, the statement noted. Images accompanying the statement indicated that the helicopter is an AW109 with the serial number S3-VHB.
Abu Ubaidah is one of two ex-People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Jiangwei II-class frigates that were recommissioned into service by the Bangladesh Navy in November 2020, with the other being BNS Umar Farooq .
The vessels were decommissioned by PLAN in 2019.
While the Bangladesh Navy has not explicitly described the event as an inaugural deck landing for the class, the milestone achieved on Abu Ubaidah is likely the first time that a Bangladeshi helicopter has landed on one of the service's Jiangwei II-class frigates.
Janes had reached out to the Bangladesh Navy for more information on the milestone including details on the service's deck landing qualification processes but has yet to receive a reply.
The Jiangwei II class has an overall length of 111.7 m and it displaces about 2,250 tonnes at full load. The ship can accommodate a crew complement of 170 personnel and embark a medium helicopter on its flight deck.
It has a top speed of 27 kt and a maximum range of about 4,000 n miles when sailing at the cruising speed of 18 kt.
For more information, please see Jiangwei II (Type 053H3) class (FFGHM) .
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