Development of the multi-role NH90 Tactical Transport Helicopter is formally completed with its approval in the final operational configuration

Marig­nane, France, Novem­ber 8, 2011
The NH90 pro­gram has reached a major mile­stone with the dec­la­ra­tion of com­pli­ance for the NH90 TTH (Tac­ti­cal Trans­port Heli­copter) variant’s Final Oper­a­tional Con­fig­u­ra­tion, This marks the NH-90 TTH’s devel­op­ment com­ple­tion, and enables deliv­er­ies to begin before year-end in the helicopter’s full oper­a­tional definition.

NH90 TTH Euro­copter Source: Air­bus Mil­i­tary Click to enlarge

“The mile­stone marks the most impor­tant achieve­ment in the life of the NH90 pro­gram. NH90, the most mod­ern rotary-wing air­craft in its class and the largest mil­i­tary heli­copter pro­gram ever under­tak­en in Europe, offers now its full range of oper­a­tional capa­bil­i­ties to the mil­i­tary forces” stat­ed Lutz Bertling, the Pres­i­dent and CEO of Euro­copter, which is a mem­ber of the NH90 indus­tri­al team. “Com­plet­ing the NH90 TTH’s com­pli­ance process con­firms this mul­ti-role heli­copter will meet the spec­i­fi­ca­tions and oper­a­tional require­ments of the found­ing customers.”

The dec­la­ra­tion of com­pli­ance was issued by the NATO Heli­copter Man­age­ment Agency (NAHEMA), which is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s func­tion that man­ages the NH90 acqui­si­tion for the par­tic­i­pat­ing countries.

With this go-ahead, the ini­tial NH90 TTH vari­ant in the final oper­a­tional con­fig­u­ra­tion is to be received by the French Army. It will be fol­lowed by the start­up of deliv­er­ies in 2012 to Italy, Bel­gium and Germany.

The new-gen­er­a­tion NH90 TTH is designed for use in a wide range of demand­ing mis­sions, includ­ing logis­tics and util­i­ty trans­port, com­bat search and res­cue, casu­al­ty and med­ical evac­u­a­tion, elec­tron­ic war­fare, spe­cial oper­a­tions and counter-terrorism.

In its approved final oper­a­tional con­fig­u­ra­tion, the heli­copter offers a matured avion­ics sys­tem, allow­ing day and night mis­sions with no major restric­tions; full mil­i­tary com­mu­ni­ca­tions sys­tem func­tion­al­i­ty for inter­op­er­abil­i­ty in for­eign oper­a­tions; a com­plete set of tech­ni­cal pub­li­ca­tions; and the approval for over­seas deploy­ments by ship.

About the NH90
Pro­duced in two basic ver­sions – the Tac­ti­cal Troop Trans­port and NATO Frigate Heli­copter – this 11-met­ric-ton class rotary-wing air­craft pro­vides a com­mon plat­form for army and navy and air force roles, enabling coun­tries to ratio­nal­ize their heli­copter fleets while also orga­niz­ing train­ing and sup­port on a larg­er scale, with flex­i­ble man­age­ment of per­son­nel and equip­ment. Its large cab­in, rapid access (with two lat­er­al slid­ing doors and option­al rear ramp) and quick role-change capa­bil­i­ty ensures mis­sion flex­i­bil­i­ty for mul­ti­ple oper­a­tional sce­nar­ios.
To date, a total of 529 NH90s have been ordered by 14 nations, of which 418 are for the Tac­ti­cal Trans­port Heli­copter ver­sion. Six NH90 final assem­bly lines are now oper­a­tional in France, Ger­many, Italy, Fin­land, Aus­tralia and Spain under direc­tion of the pan-Euro­pean NHIn­dus­tries indus­tri­al orga­ni­za­tion – which is owned by Euro­copter (62.5%), AgustaWest­land (32%), and Fokker Aerostruc­tures (5.5%). More than 80 NH90s have been deliv­ered to mil­i­tary ser­vices, with these air­craft log­ging some 19,100 flight hours.

About Euro­copter
Estab­lished in 1992, the Fran­co-Ger­man-Span­ish Euro­copter Group is a divi­sion of EADS, a world leader in aero­space, defense and relat­ed ser­vices. The Euro­copter Group employs approx­i­mate­ly 17,500 peo­ple. In 2010, Euro­copter con­firmed its posi­tion as the world’s num­ber one heli­copter man­u­fac­tur­er in the civ­il and para­pub­lic mar­ket with a turnover of 4.8 bil­lion Euros, orders for 346 new heli­copters and a 49 per­cent mar­ket share in the civ­il and para­pub­lic sec­tors. Over­all, the Group’s heli­copters account for 33 per­cent of the total world­wide civ­il and para­pub­lic fleet. Eurocopter’s strong world­wide pres­ence is ensured by its 30 sub­sidiaries and par­tic­i­pa­tions on five con­ti­nents, along with a dense net­work of dis­trib­u­tors, cer­ti­fied agents and main­te­nance cen­ters. There are cur­rent­ly 11,200 Euro­copter heli­copters in ser­vice and some 2,900 cus­tomers in 147 coun­tries. Euro­copter offers the largest civ­il and mil­i­tary heli­copter range in the world.