Order for 28 Helicopters Worth €3 Billion to NHI Consortium

Leonardo announced on 20 August that it has converted the contract with Qatar for the supply of 28 NH90 multirole helicopters to the Qatari Ministry of Defence, signed on 14 March, booking the order to backlog and receiving the associated advance payment. Leonardo acts as prime contractor, responsible for managing the entire programme, worth over $3 billion to the NHI consortium, owned by Leonardo, Airbus and Fokker.

The programme consists of 16 NH90 TTH for land operations, 12 NH90 NFH for maritime missions and a comprehensive support, maintenance and training services package with associated infrastructure. An extension is seen as possible, with the addition of up to a further 12 helicopters. Leonardo will be responsible for final assembly and delivery of the 12 NH90 NFH and an eight year crew and maintenance team support and training services package: Airbus will assemble the 16 NH90 TTH aircraft. Deliveries are expected to start by mid-2022 and continue to 2025.

Leonardo is responsible for or contributes to the design, production and integration of a wide range of NH90 critical components and systems. These include the rear fuselage, main gearbox, hydraulic system, Automatic Flight Control System, plant management system, NFH mission system, power plant integration and final assembly of TTH and NFH aircraft for various customers at its Venice – Tessera facility in Northern Italy. The company also integrates additional dedicated systems, avionics and sensors such as the Laser Obstacle Avoidance Monitoring system, radar, digital map generator, sonar and naval mission console. In weapon systems, Leonardo also contributes to the pintle-mounted Gatling-type guns, torpedoes and air-to-surface missiles for anti-surface warfare missions.