UK delays New Medium Helicopter service entry and contract award dates

BELFAST — The UK has still not approved dates for entry into service or production contract award for a £1 billion ($1.15 billion) New Medium Helicopter (NMH) acquisition, designed to replace Puma HC2 rotorcraft and a number of smaller rotary fleets, including Bell 212, Bell 412 and AS365 Dauphins.

New helicopters had been expected to enter service from 2025 onward, but without set critical acquisition targets, such a timeline appears increasingly difficult to sustain.

Sarah Atherton MP said during a Wednesday UK defense committee hearing that the committee had been previously told a winning NMH bidder would be announced by “autumn” 2023. But James Cartlidge, UK minister for defense procurement, told lawmakers that the MoD had not “determined” contract award or service entry dates.

“We are working out parameters for the competition itself,” he said. “That will then inform points around the dates that follow on from that in the usual way.”

With no service entry date set, the prospect of a rotary medium lift capability gap grows. If necessary, the UK’s fleet of 23 Pumas could be modified to keep them in the air longer.

“The Puma was originally going to be retired sooner than 2025 under the Integrated Review (of British defense policy, published in 2021), it was extended in order to fulfil roles in Cyprus and in Brunei,” said Air Chief Marshal Richard Knighton, Chief of the Air Staff Designate. “It could be extended still further out to 2027 or 2028, or that kind of timeframe, but that decision has not been taken yet and will be dependent upon the progress of the New Medium Helicopter.”

As part of a downselect process, Airbus, Boeing, Leonardo and Lockheed Martin were all told in October 2022 that they had successfully passed a NMH dynamic prequalification questionnaire assessment (DPQQ), though Boeing has since confirmed it is not taking part in the competition as a prime contractor. Rather, it will be supporting an Airbus H175M offer.

An invitation to negotiate (ITN) phase involving the MoD defining exact requirements and costs for industry was originally set to start by the end of Q1 2023, but Atherton said that NMH tender documents currently sit with an “assessment committee,” which must first sign off on new approvals, before the ITN phase can commence. She added that ITN could then take six months to complete.

If that forecast stands as a rough guide and taking into account that newly produced helicopters generally take between 18 to 24 months to manufacture, barring any further delays a first NMH aircraft would appear to be ready for handover to the UK in mid to late 2025, with actual service entry lagging months behind that.

“One of the things that really concerns me and I know for a fact that it concerns industry, is that new medium lift was listed in the MoD’s acquisition pipeline, and was then delisted, that sends a really difficult signal to industry,” added Dave Doogan MP.

He suggested NMH was part of a defense procurement culture that habitually keeps “industry in the dark” and then expects suppliers to “deliver overnight.”

In response, Cartlidge denied NMH had been “dropped” or handled in such a way, and said that manufacturers had been notified of progress.

“We’re committed to it, but… I can’t say more than that for commercial confidentiality reasons,” he explained.

In addition to the Airbus H175M offer, Leonardo has pitched the AW149 multirole helicopter, with both manufacturers committing to build new aircraft in the UK, if selected. Lockheed Martin has offered the S-70M Black Hawk but has yet to disclose any production plans, although S-70i export Black Hawks are manufactured in Poland.