Mitsubishi Heavy Industries SLAS Ship Landing Assist System

t MAST Asia 2017 (Maritime Air Systems & Technologies), the naval defense exhibition held last week in Tokyo, Japanese company Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) was promoting its Ship Landing Assist System (SLAS).

SLAS role is to assist naval helicopters in their approach towards an underway ship that is out of visible range and lands the helicopter on the deck automatically. MHI has developped the SLAS with differential GPS (DGPS) and laser guidance technologies.

SLAS is effective in night-time or low visibility weather such as rain, snow or fog (in visibility as low as 100 meters). SLAS contributes to reduce pilot workload thanks to its automatic approach, automatic hovering above flight deck and automatic landing features.