Qatar has signed a contract for the purchase of 28 NH90 military helicopters, during DIMDEX, Qatar’s biennial defence exhibition. The ...
Qatar has signed a contract for the purchase of 28 NH90 military helicopters, during DIMDEX, Qatar’s biennial defence exhibition.
The agreement, which includes 16 NH90s in tactical transport (TTH) configuration and 12 NH90s in naval (NFH) configuration, will support the country’s plan to modernize their military helicopter fleet.
As part of the plan, Qatar will also receive 16 H125 light single-engine helicopters in training configuration for operation by the Qatar Armed Forces Air Academy.
The overall contract valued at more than €3 billion to the NHI consortium, and also include a comprehensive support, maintenance training services package and associated infrastructure.
The program could be further extended in the future with option for 6 + 6 units in a mix of TTH and NFH variants.
Leonardo will act as overall prime contractor with responsibility for program management, final assembly and delivery of the 12 NH90 NFH helicopters from its Venice – Tessera facility in Northern Italy and an eight-year support and training services package for crews and maintenance technicians.
Meanwhile Airbus will be responsible for the final assembly of the 16 NH90 TTH aircraft from its facility in Marignane, France. Deliveries are expected to start before June 2022 and to continue through to 2025.
Leonardo will also supply, contribute to and integrate various equipment, avionics and sensors.
This contract for 28 helicopters brings the total order book to 543 aircraft. To date, 350 aircraft have been delivered to 20 customers in 13 countries and have accumulated around 170,000 flight hours.
The twin-engine, medium-size NH90 helicopter program is managed by the consortium NHIndustries, a company owned by Airbus Helicopters (62.5%), Leonardo (32%), and Fokker (5.5%).
The twin-engine, medium-size NH90 helicopter weighs about 11 tonne and can be powered by either Safran RTM-322 turboshaft or the GE T700 turboshaft engines.
