At the crossroads: UK rotorcraft

The AW149 medium-lift helicopter is the single tender left in the UK’s New Medium Helicopter (NMH) programme. Credit: Author

The UK’s commitment to Nato’s Next Generation Rotorcraft Capability (NGRC) programme may contend with its sovereign New Medium Helicopter (NMH) project.

A mix of interrelated factors – including Nato, the forthcoming Strategic Defence Review (SDR) and the UK’s lethargic fiscal policy – will come together to cast some doubt on the full procurement of both programmes. NGRC and NMH respond to two different needs in scope and timing.

NGRC, under the management of the Nato Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA), aims to identify next generation technologies, capabilities and architectures which could lead to initiatives for a medium helicopter solution only in the longer term.

France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK are all participants, having signed a memorandum of understanding in early October to identify a single preferred solution by the end of 2027, ready to begin development from 2030.

The UK’s NMH has always been intended to meet an urgent operational need to replace an ageing fleet of multi-role, medium-lift utility helicopters which are rapidly nearing their life-cycle limit. This need was made even more clear with the recent cut of the Royal Air Force's entire Puma HC2 fleet.

Left with only a single tender in what was meant to be a competitive acquisition process, the NMH programme saw the exit of the Lockheed Martin UH-60 Black Hawk and Airbus H145 helicopters. Leonardo UK, with its AW149 design, is the only supplier left in the running according to the UK government on 8 October. 

The prospect of an either/or scenario stems from the considerable strain on the UK’s public finances.

Faced with a £22bn ($28.5bn) “black hole”; the UK government is committed to chipping away at the deficit through stringent cost-cutting measures that will effect UK defence priorities.

This is already underway following the Labour government’s first Budget statement since it was last in power 14 years ago. At the end of October, the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, revealed a minimal commitment of £2.9bn ($3.6bn) to defence spending.

Still, the new Labour government withstands pressure to commit to lifting defence spending to 2.5% of the UK’s gross domestic product, promising to reach the target “at a future fiscal event.” 

Malcom Chalmers, deputy director general at the British security policy think tank, the Royal United Services Institute, stated before the Budget that “this [target alone] … will not be enough to avoid hard choices, given the threats which the UK and its allies are likely to face in the coming years.”

Their refusal to raise defence spending to this level, even if it is achieved over the next few years – content to inch closer to the aspirational benchmark indefinitely – leaves the country unable to pursue two different medium-lift helicopter programmes at once.

In the meantime, UK Defence will continue to tread water over the next several months, at least, it is hoped, until the Strategic Defence Review (SDR) is released sometime in the first half of 2025.  

The Labour government will present its primary concerns in the SDR as the country enters a volatile security environment and a shift to a multi-polar global order. The military needs to be prepared for what is to come over the next few years – with some analysts suggesting in 2024 the UK ought to be ready by 2028 to fight the Russians.

This would place importance on the NMH as the more timely programme. The deadline to submit a tender was in August this year, and the Ministry of Defence has already moved on to review whether Leonardo UK is able to meet the national requirements. 

The Leonardo bid is promising considering the company is able to manufacture 60% of the AW149 helicopter in the UK at its Yeovil facility, and this could address a global market for 500 medium-sized military helicopters, “potentially worth billions in UK exports,” a Leonardo spokesperson told Army Technology.

Leonardo remains positive, not just for its bid, but for programme progression.

“The opportunity provided by having a sole bidder is that the acquisition can now be accelerated, saving time/costs and delivering this urgently required capability into the hands of our armed forces as quickly as possible," the spokesperson said.

After this, Ministers will then determine the feasibility of the acquisition in line with the UK’s strategic defence priorities which will be enshrined in the SDR next year. 

In July, Nato awarded contracts to rotorcraft manufacturers Airbus, Leonardo and Sikorsky to carry out integrated platform concept studies – also known as ‘Study 5’. These studies – each comprising up to two concepts – will be delivered in October 2025, enabling the NSPA to prepare its report to the participants.

Declaring a “Nato first” defence strategy upon entering government for the first time after a decade and a half in the political wilderness, the Labour government will need to contribute British innovation to NSPA efforts for near-future medium helicopter technologies.

“If the focus is on ‘Nato First’, this suggests a prioritisation of the capabilities needed for short notice defence of the homeland and Nato allies against Russia,” Chalmers maintained.

While the NMH fulfils the domestic requirement when it comes to filling a gap in the country's rotary capabilities in the UK Armed Forces, the government must also ensure its contributions to its ‘allies against Russia’ through the NGRC are structured to be strictly within its means.

Given the NGRC programme has only just begun – effectively in November – the UK should focus on what it can provide its partners, besides what it can take from them in this NSPA project. While the British defence industry is partly lacking in the rotorcraft sector, it can still contribute avionics among other things necessary to power a common Nato platform.

Meanwhile, US and European defence companies are already leading the charge when it comes to integrating emerging technologies into their early concept designs. 

A spokesperson from Lockheed Martin, the parent group of Sikorsky, stated that they can derive from “years of investment and rigorous flight testing with multiple X2 technology demonstrators have proven its ability to change the future airspace.”  

This innovation provides twice the speed and twice the range of traditional rotary-wing platforms, according to a company statement. “Our X2 aircraft will feature 1LMX efficiencies and 21st Century Security technology.”

Likewise, Bell Helicopters will support Leonardo in its bid for the NGRC having signed a deal to cooperate in the field of tilt-rotor technology in February.

A Bell spokesperson commented: “Bell and Leonardo share a multi-decade history of vertical lift technology collaboration.” 

Editor’s note: This feature article was first published on Army Technology, and has since been amended.

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