Military

SAMA CH2000

The SAMA CH2000 is a two-seat single engine-prop airplane equipped with forward looking infrared - a multi sensor imager offering high performance, precision, and high level imaging . The aircraft will also be equipped with state-of-the art communications systems guaranteeing continuous and secure air and land communications using various band widths. The craft are capable of day and nighttime missions.

Sama-CH2000 is a full IFR, two seat light personal and training aircraft. The aircraft is designed by the veteran aerospace engineer Christian Heintz and ideally suited for flight academies due to its simplicity, toughness and low running costs. Sama is type certified in the normal and utility categories by the FAA and Transport Canada, it is also certified in all European countries as well as Jordan.

Transatlantic Traders Inc.*, Evansville, Ind., was awarded on Sept. 28, 2004, a $5,818,000 firm-fixed-price contract for eight SAMA CH2000 Aircraft. Work will be performed in Amman, Jordan (87.45 percent) and Baghdad, Iraq (12.55 percent), and was expected to be completed by Sept. 26, 2006. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There were an unknown number of bids solicited via the World Wide Web on June 18, 2004, and 31 bids were received. The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-04-C-0332).

The three-year-old Jordan Aerospace Industries (JAI) gained preference because the two-seater Sama CH2000 (manufactured and marketed as the "Alarus" in the USA by Aircraft Manufacturing & Development Co. (AMD)), the brand involved in the deal, is being manufactured in Jordan. JAI is the first private company in the Middle East to manufacture, assemble and service light aircraft. Its team is mainly comprised of Jordanian experts who have retired from the Royal Air Force. A team of 40 Jordanian specialists work on Sama CH2000, under the supervision of an aviation safety team from the Jordan Civil Aviation Authority and experts from the engineering company Zenair Ltd of North America, which verifies quality.

The Iraqi air force's 70th Squadron took possession of the first two SAMA CH2000 light air surveillance aircraft, 29 Octover 2004, in Basrah, as the first delivery of an eight - and possibly 16 aircraft - addition to the force. In standing up the balance of the aircraft, the Iraqi air force will receive two CH2000 airplanes per month - deliveries kicking off in December - with final deliveries completing the $5.8 million acquisition at the end of March 2005.