26 December 2020: In a major milestone for the Qatar Emiri Air Force’s NH90 helicopter programmefirst of 12 NH90 NFH naval helicopters and the first of 16 NH90 TTH over-land variant took to the air from Leonardo’s Venice Tessera facility and Airbus Helicopters’ Marignane site respectively. The flights allowed crews to evaluate general handling and basic systems and the helicopters performed as expected. Leonardo is responsible for the final assembly and delivery of the 12 NH90 NFH helicopters from its Venice Tessera facility and will also act as the prime contractor for the overall programme. They will also be providing a simulators, support and training services package for crews and maintenance technicians.
Gian Piero Cutillo, Leonardo Helicopters MD, said “We’re extremely pleased to celebrate this important achievement as we continue to work to deliver this programme. The NH90 is set to provide the Qatar Ministry of Defense, an important and longstanding customer, with outstanding operational capabilities suitable for a range of missions. Together with our industrial partners, we’re committed to completing and introducing this essential defense and security enabler for our customer.”
Qatar’s NH90 programme includes 16 NH90 TTHs for land operations, 12 NH90 NFHs for naval missions, a comprehensive support, maintenance & training services package and associated infrastructure. The programme has the potential to be extended in the future with the addition of 6 + 6 units in a mixture of TTH and NFH variants. Leonardo is providing, contributing to or supporting the integration of various avionics and sensor payloads, including the Leonardo LEOSS-T HD electro-optical system, HD Mission Video Recorder, Automatic Identification System, Tactical video link and Full HD display for cabin consoles. Airbus Helicopters is responsible for carrying out the final assembly of the 16 NH90 TTH aircraft. Acceptance of the first batch of NH90s by the Qatar Emiri Air Force is scheduled to start before the end of 2021, with the last helicopter planned to be delivered in 2025.
The NH90 is the largest military helicopter programme in Europe and managed through the NHIndustries joint venture. Around 430 units are in service worldwide and the platform has logged over 270,000 flight hours in a wide range of weather and environmental conditions, over land and sea.
