Heli-Dyne's New Sentinel to Guard Ecuador's Coast

While not a showcase for weaponry, Heli-Expo occasionally attracts some fairly lethal machinery. The prize for this year's most offensive helicopter goes to the missile-carrying Bell 412 Sentinel, developed as a multirole anti-submarine warfare, search and rescue and tactical platform by Heli-Dyne Systems of Hurst, Texas. The Sentinel flown here, the second for Ecuador, is extensively equipped with dipping sonar, multimode radar, FLIR, datalink, a hoist, radar warning receivers, a four-axis decelerate-to-hover autopilot, and head-up displays. Flyaway cost is a cool $16 million.