Endless “jingle” of NH-90 helicopters – new delays in deliveries and lack of availability

Almost a year after the Army Air Forces acquired the 15th of a total of 20 NH-90 helicopters and 20 years after the signing of the relevant agreement, the “jingle” of the military staff seems to have no end.

While the manufacturer was supposed to deliver at least two more helicopters, there were again long delays in meeting the schedule. In April 2021, the sixth amendment to the original contract signed in 2003 between NH Industries and the General Directorate of Defense Equipment and Investments satisfied GES and the Air Force. But also optimism that the problematic development of the fleet program would finally be completed, the continuation was not as expected.

Last week, another meeting of the Military Staff was held with representatives of the manufacturer. According to New Post information, the delivery of the 16th helicopter was postponed to December 2023 and the 17th to February 2024. While the question remains when the last three NH-90 aircraft will be delivered to the Army Air Forces.

The original contract stipulated that all 20 helicopters – 16 transport aircraft, 4 special operations aircraft and four additional NH-90 Medevac helicopters – would be delivered by the end of 2009. Their cost was $657 million. Technical problems that arose already from the acceptance tests of the first helicopter caused long delays in the implementation of the program from the beginning.

The first amendment to the agreement came in 2010, with the company paying compensation. With the continued delays and problems with technical support for the helicopters that were previously received in 2015, the leadership of the Ministry of National Defense decided not to receive the twelfth helicopter, and to stop paying the installments. When 70% of the total amount has been paid, the contract to support the 70 helicopters will not be signed. 75 which was approved by Parliament the previous year. Finally, it was decided to continue implementing the agreement, and three helicopters will be received by the end of 2017.

But without technical support, as a result, almost everything remains static. In October 2021, the Technical Support Agreement was finally approved by Parliament to be signed in November 2022. The contract concerns, however, a limited flow of spare parts and not large helicopter systems, resulting in availability remaining very low.. Out of a total of 14 countries that have selected NH-90 aircraft in all versions, Australia, Belgium, Sweden and Norway have already decided to withdraw them from service early and replace them with other types of helicopters.

Despite the great capabilities of the NH-90 helicopters, the lack of availability of French helicopters is one of the most important “thorns” facing the military staff. The fifteen NH-90 helicopters logged little or no flying hours.

As if that were not enough, the few NH-90s available are still mainly used not for special operations unit training or other training activities for which they were acquired, but for airlift operations from the Aegean islands and also for transport. It is worth noting that during the three days of last Easter, the NH-90 aircraft “recorded” approximately 20 hours of flight time over the archipelago for air transport operations of patients. From the small islands of the Aegean Sea. GES, in an attempt to find solutions, appears to be looking for other ways to support its powerful but long-suffering helicopters, and is approaching countries that are withdrawing from them.