Established in 1957 as the Protection Civile it was renamed in 1976. The Sécurité Civile is a civil defence agency under the Ministry of the Interior employing some 2,500 civilian and military personnel over 60 bases in mainland France and its overseas territories. The Sécurité Civile helicopter division carries out an average 10,000 rescue missions each year. They use the callsign DRAGON followed by the number of the département in which their base is located. As of December 2021, the Sécurité Civile operates 33 Airbus EC145 helicopters from 23 bases
24-Jan-24 - The Ministry of Interior has ordered 42 ( plus 22 options ) new Airbus H145D3 five-bladed helicopters. Deliveries are set to commence this year. Sécurité Civile will receive 42 for search and rescue, while the Gendarmerie Nationale will receive 6 for law enforcement #H145D3
17-Dec-21 - French Sécurité Civile orders second pair of Airbus H145D3s. The first two 5-bladed helicopters were delivered to the Agency this month and will gradually replace a fleet of 33 EC145s that entered service in 2002 #H145D3
12-May-16 - Airbus Helicopters France will upgrade the avionics suite of the 35 EC145 operated by the Sécurité Civile, the national agency for search and rescue and medical evacuation services
12-Nov-15 - Airbus Helicopters awarded contract for a global service solution for the next 5 years covering the entire fleet of 50 EC145 operated by the French Gendarmerie Nationale and Sécurité Civile.
19-May-05 - Handing over of the EC 145 at Eurocopter Group’s Donauwörth site completes the order of 32 helicopters operated by the French Sécurité Civile launch customer.
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