Atlas Oryx

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Oryx M2

The Atlas Oryx (named after the oryx antelope) is a medium-sized utility helicopter manufactured by the Atlas Aircraft Corporation (now Denel Aviation) of South Africa. It is an upgraded and remanufactured version of the Aerospatiale Puma, equivalent to the Eurocopter Super Puma, and offers a performance improvement over the original, in addition to cutting the operating costs by 25 to 30%.

The Oryx is currently in service with several squadrons of the South African Air Force, with about 44 being available.

It can carry up to 20 fully equipped troops or 6 wounded on stretchers with 4 attendants or 3,000 kg freight carried in the cabin or 4,500 kg freight on an external sling.

There is also an electronic warfare (stand-off communications jamming/radar jamming) version of the Oryx that is equipped with the Grinaker Systems Technologies (GST) GSY 1501 jamming system, among others.

Two Oryx helicopters have also been modified for operations in the Southern Ocean and the Antarctic, for which they have been painted in the red and white colour scheme as illustrated in the photograph accompanying this article. These two aircraft have been given the designation of Oryx M2.

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