The Ministry of Defence has confirmed an upgraded partnership with Leonardo that will see the AW149 selected under the New Medium Helicopter programme and Yeovil positioned as a future centre of excellence for autonomous rotary wing systems.
The agreement forms part of what the government calls a wider reset of its industrial relationships, aligned with the Strategic Defence Review and the Defence Industrial Strategy.
According to a statement, “the new deal secured by the Government with Leonardo will provide the UK Armed Forces with 23 new medium-lift helicopters (NMH) – which could work alongside uncrewed aircraft – and paves the path for future military international orders to be built in the UK, with an increased workshare for the UK above 40%. There are around 20 countries with requirements for new medium-lift helicopters. Together with Leonardo’s other helicopters, international orders for NMH could generate over £15 billion in exports over the next 10 years.”
The AW149 will fulfil the New Medium Helicopter requirement, replacing multiple legacy platforms with a single aircraft type capable of operating across the full spectrum of defence tasks. The platform is designed to deliver troop transport, support to special operations, and broader operational roles, while also contributing to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions.
The consolidation of roles into one aircraft type is intended to streamline the rotary wing fleet, improving efficiency and operational flexibility while reducing the complexity associated with sustaining three separate aircraft types.
The partnership also has a significant industrial dimension. The agreement, say the MOD, opens a pathway for future export orders of the AW149 to be built in the UK, expanding domestic workshare and strengthening the long-term viability of the Yeovil site. The programme has the potential to sustain up to 3,900 jobs, representing an increase of around 20 per cent, with Leonardo stating that more than 3,300 roles in Yeovil and 12,000 across the wider UK supply chain will be supported.
Nigel Colman, Managing Director of Helicopters UK at Leonardo, said:
“We welcome the decision to award the New Medium Helicopter contract to supply medium lift helicopters to the Ministry of Defence, as well as the continued investment in Proteus – our autonomous rotary wing uncrewed air system in development with the Royal Navy.
“Leonardo is committed to providing the UK Armed Forces with a world-class medium lift helicopter based on our leading AW149 platform that will serve our military personnel for many years to come.
“The Government’s procurement of the AW149, as well as the continued investment in autonomy, will support more than 3,300 jobs in Yeovil, the Home of British Helicopters, as well as 12,000 across the UK supply chain.”
Defence Secretary John Healey MP said:
“This defence investment works for Britain on every level. It strengthens our Armed Forces, secures thousands of skilled British jobs, and sets up big export opportunities. It is a major vote of confidence in British industry, British workers and British innovation. This Government’s broad deal makes Yeovil the proud home of Leonardo’s global military helicopter production, building world-class helicopters for our forces and allies around the world for many years to come. It backs British jobs and security today, and makes the UK a pace-setter in uncrewed, technology and innovation for tomorrow.”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said:
“In an uncertain world we are backing Britain’s world‑class defence sector to both keep Britain safe and drive economic growth. This historic partnership not only supports British jobs and security today, but positions the UK and its allies at the forefront of the next generation of defence and autonomous systems tomorrow.”
An order. There’s an order. Order, order! I know it was announced a couple of days ago, but it’s good to see something in the headlines no matter how truncated the numbers.
I’m not sure about the exports though. Wouldn’t we expect Leonardo to move production for foreign sales out of the UK as soon as they can?
Isn’t the AW149 already being manufactured in Poland underlicence already so would possibly need to compete with that?
23 AW149 to replace 23 Puma? What is the delivery rate and how long would the Puma remain in service?
puma has gone already
My understanding is that Poland’s AW149 factory is just a FAL using mostly imported kits so it’s not necessarily cheaper than the UK to build there.
They are moving the production line to the UK on the strength of this deal, so future international orders would be built at Yeovil.
Presumably Vergiate is busy enough with all the civilian models and the AW249 new attack helicopter.
Hopefully there will be further sales now that we have gone for it, fingers crossed.
(It’s only a dream)
£1 bn for 23 AW149 helicopters – so £44m each for a modest helicopter that will have predominantly Italian manufactured content and American (GE) manufactured engines. There seems to be a c.£20M premium each from having these assembled at Yeovil. A huge ouch.
For comparison, in 2023 Australia paid almost exactly the same amount for 40 UH-60M Black Hawks, but that also included 5 years of equipment and support.
“Buy British” is always politically attractive, but using the defence budget to pay for industrial subsidies is ruinous for the armed forces.
“Buy British” should be all of our aims.
Sadly we all prefer a “Bargain” though.
What are Aus paying for support after 5 years? US comparisons are hard to be certain on with costings. Sometimes with fighters the ticket cost doesn’t include engines etc.
Strategic capabilities should be maintained, that should be part of the 5% spend. Once manufacture goes, it’s gone forever. 3000 jobs , supply chain and apprenticeships adds a long term economic value. Builds some war resilience as those skills are transferable to missile and drone airframe manufacture.
To be fair a decent amount of that money will come back to the treasury anyway, 20% VAT for starters. Then the other taxes of the workers including Nat Insurance. Then we have the claim of 40% UK content which is more business for the UK firms and tax take on that. We need to buy British, outsourcing hasnt worked.
There was an article in the Telegraph recently, complaining about how Yeovil is a complete ripoff and we should just buy foreign helicopters and focus on making other things. The author completely failed to acknowledge that money spent in the UK eventually returns something like 35-40% of expenditure to the Treasury, while also generating major social value.
Realistically, the only issue with buying British is the timescales involved, which aren’t an issue with domestic production, simply a consequence of not having a defence industrial policy. We’ve managed to forget lessons we first learnt 130+ years ago
You say that, but as I quoted elsewhere, we paid over three times as much per unit, and I like the US, which has the manufacturing might to make sure the supplies get through; the Italians have no such ability. The avionics and engines come from GE, so the only thing the people at Yeovil are doing is Lego building. There’s no sovereign ability at all from this deal. Buying the Blackhawk would give access to a global supply chain thats isn’t there with the Leonardo product. “If,” and it’s a big if, they build an unmanned helicopter unit in the UK thats fair enough. But whether it’s Germany (RBL), France (Airbus/DSE), the USA (every US defence firm) or Italy (Leo), it appears the secret sauce in every single one of these “mutual” projects doesn’t reside with the UK.
Yep, 100%, the tail was the dog..
This is another gret example of pissing money against the wall.
There will be ‘zero’ opportunity of export sales too, I will guarantee Leonardo won’t allow that, why would they with their own production line and a Polish assembly line.
A production line for only 23 airframes is politically mandated insanity, they have learnt absolutely nothing.
The tail wags the dog even!!
I thought the original requirement was for 44 helicopters so how can we only be getting 23?
It is.
The usual issue is that a line has got to be set up, people trained…..so for 23 units that costs look extortionate….cost per unit for 44 cabs would be a lot less.
It is the tiny orders reversed out of a tight budget that force up unit prices.
At the moment the order for 23 AW149s is a direct 1 for 1 replacement of the Puma 2s. Could we see the original 44 order being fulfilled? At this point I think it’s highly doubtful. The Government seems to think that a token order, fulfils their commitment.
Well some of us did warn of this like years ago?
We were never going to get the number the military need, what the military need is utterly irrelevant to HMG.
Only what industry needs so HMG can grandstand.
We were never getting 44 for £1bn. However, we already bought 6 X H145s to replace 7 X 212s/412s and I suspect this AW149 order is just to replace the Puma, meaning the 5 X Dauphins remain, hopefully to be replaced by a later AW149/H145 order. So 34 in total.
It’s hard to believe what the hell is going on in the UK
Well being American, that hardly surprises !
😂.
You are American right ? 🤔🙄
And America seems completely sane doesn’t it?
You missed the word “In”
Insane.
I’m getting old and grumpy too. I don’t believe it!
How many do we really need?
Ideally at least 3 full squadrons of 12 (total squadron operational of 36) used purely for Green Army support. Plus another 8 to 10 going through the maintenance cycle. Would also like to add an additional squadron, that is being used purely for CASEVAC/CSAR, which would have brought the numbers up to 58ish.
Would Merlin be a better platform for CSAR, with increased range, larger cab for med teams, potential for a2a refuelling for long range rescue? Or too much trouble?
Also, what about OCU/OEU numbers? It feels like that’s not been factored into the actual purchase, so I guess 28 sqn will borrow from the operational pool, and for testing Boscombe will beg/borrow/steal from whoever they can to get hold of an operational airframe…
15 billion in exports? . 20% extra jobs to build 23 small helo’s??? New relationship with Leonardo??
Even Trump would blush selling these tall tales.
What’s that i hear? Leonardo’s top brass laffing all the way to the bank?
The UK is truly fukked with these clowns in charge.
The issue is even on this site where people care about defence, half of the posts are about buying British, which comes at a massive premium. Because of history our armed forces try to be a global power on a budget, and that means any one order is small, as we have to buy every capability and have a bad habit of platinum plating when we do. Better option would be to focus on a specific capability to provide to NATO and do it on scale.
23 is a token number that will have almost no military application, as if you work on the usual 1/3 rule it will mean 7 are available at any one time. Considering medium lift is probably the most important in a conflict, 7 is going to be badly stretched. Hopefully this is just the first order but I suspect it’s all we are getting.
Spot on, an unbelievably stupid procurement, just pissing money and capability away…
Assuming they deliver 12 airframes a year, does that mean we have spent 1 billion, to keep an Italian owned factory, building an Italian helicopter, open for two extra years??
That’s a ‘lot’ of cash for a short stay of execution, never mind the huge cost of a new training and support pipeline for yet another bloody helicopter type!!!
Our defence capability and procurement is a bloody joke.
Give me strength, Im grumpy enough, I dont need this shit on a Monday morning….
And if they didn’t order them, then how grumpy would you be?
As ive said Robert, a similar outlay of cash would have provided us with 23 more Merlin HC4.
That would have given us a fleet of approximately 48 HC4’s and a genuine and real uplift in capability.
What we have done is spend a billion, on a tiny additional fleet of helos, that will require an expensive entirely different training and support pipeline.
Its politically driven bullshit of the first order.
Is the 149 maritime capable, of will Leonardo screw us over again for the modification package.
Sorry if it makes me grumpy, but its my tax money thats being wasted on this crap…
Merlin isn’t in production anymore. And HC4 is for maritime use.
Oh yes it is.
Its not in production at Yeovil. Just support packages.
Could it be restarted? Just wondering what might replace Merlin down the line. I suppose if they can keep them going to 2040 as they will try to, no one needs to worry about it just yet, but the time it takes a decision to be made we prob need to be thinking about it now!
I think they do have the capacity to restart production if they get any export orders. But Merlin is a unique helicopter. Very capable. But also expensive.
Merlin IS in production at Yeovil and nowhere else.
The only comparative I can think of is the US Army, which gives rotary a bigger place in their CONOPS. A US Division has 50 front-line Black Hawks, 3 ‘companies’ of 10, able to transport an nfantry company in one lift, plus 4 C2 and 4 EW in the HQ company and 12 in a medevac company. 50 frontline means about 97 in total, allowing for those in maintenance, war replacements, OCU etc.
We have two divisions on paper, so if equipped to US standards, would need 194 in total.
Plus probably 30 for the RAF’s medium lift utility and CSAR roles.
So our 23 seems rather on the inadequate side!
£44m for a medium helicopter is a fantastically high figure. The army was originally looking for a cost of under £25m, hence the original talk of a buy of 44.
Hey mate, broke this down for you the other day but I think you missed it.
Long story short: US standards don’t apply really, and you’re making a bit of an apples to oranges comparison. Also your numbers are slightly off, it’s 40 Blackhawks, 3 Troops/Companies of 8 in the Assault Battalion, with a Med Evac Company in the General Support Battalion and 8 in the liason/vip role in the GSB HQ.
Morning Dern, the point being, that an an order of 23 helicopters is, from an operational perspective, about as useful as a chocolate teapot.
It will mean deployment of a handful operationally.
A politically forced procurement, just chucking money away.
Ive said it before, but the only way you could order medium helicopter from Leonardo and actually contribute towards our capability, would have been to order an additional 23 Merlin HC4, that would gove us a very useful combined fleet of 48 ish airframes, using existing training and support pipelines.
This has ‘sod’ all to do with military capability, its a total political sop.
Best thing they could do with these, in my opinion, is cancelling the UK SAR contracts, use these for the job instead.
That way, these 23 airframes would actually have a real practical use and we could bring SAR back in house.
12 for deployment most likely in 2 Squadrons, enough to lift a Company Group, which is useful in the context of 16AA and in concert with Chinook is enough to be lifting the fighting component of 16AA, and a like for like replacement of Puma.
Deploying 50% of the fleet is extremely unlikely, considering standard availability levels, the usual drip fed support, considering maintenance and OCU, I doubt you will have more than 16 operationally available in total, of that, they will probably only provide a full combat equipment spec, ballistic protection etc, for a small number.
So your 12, will probably be 6, at the very best.
Honestly mate, it boils my piss dry.
It’s a 1 for 1 replacement of the Puma fleet with a much more capable aircraft. It’s about as good as its going to get. Jobs saved, and a factory in the UK lives on. New helicopter for the RAF.
Hi mate.
With respect, it might not be, which is my current fear until the smoke and mirrors from HMG clears.
The Bells and Griffins which were originally included were replaced by the 6 HC145S, ok.
And what of the 5 Dauphin?
Are they safe, or are these 23 replacing those as well, which was part of the original requirement.
I understood that Dauphin had been removed from this requirement.
I can see MoD doing a typical slight of hand and replacing Dauphin too.
In which case, it’s another cut dressed up as a celebration no matter how much one spins it.
DSF lost their Hercules of 47 Sqn.
DSF lost their Defenders of 651 Sqn.
DSF lost their Lynx of 657 Sqn.
Are they now losing every dedicated asset they had in the Dauphins of 657 as well?
I’m hoping there is no change to the Dauphins of 658 sqn AAC – that would mean another reduction in numbers of about 5 or 6 machines!
It would, it would seriously piss me off, DSF need assets.
totally agree 👍
Flight reported the AW149 would replace the Dauphins as well:
“The super-medium-twins will replace the Royal Air Force’s now-retired fleet of 23 Puma HC2s and the five Airbus Helicopters AS365 Dauphins flown by the Army Air Corps for domestic special forces support missions.”
And the official gov.uk statement on the contract states:
“The AW149 NMH will deliver multiple rotary wing requirements using a single aircraft-type. This means that the platform will be able to undertake defence tasks that were previously delivered by three different aircraft types, streamlining our capabilities – improving efficiency and operational flexibility now and in the future. ”
Not quite sure what the 3rd aircraft type is though (presuming the first and second are the Puma and the Dauphin), unless the gov.uk author was referring to the original NMH plan and conflating the Bell 412 and 212 together.
Hi Mate – it;s not a bad result, I’m happy they got on with it and and orderd the things!
I missed out the word ‘each’: each of the 3 Black Hawk companies can transport an infantry company in a single lift, so a US Division can move 3 companies in one go, generally in a local air assault role. Of course they can also transport a lot of supplies etc forward with these kind of rotary numbers.
We do need a far larger helicopter force & it would be interesting to see what the unit price would be for 100/200 etc.
This is clearly the worst of all worlds in that it is sustaining jobs only, it is not meeting the military requirement in terms of volume, so we are paying a premium.
It’s not really a good order for leonardo either as it’s probably it represents 12% of their annual capacity. Fast fwd a year and they will need another order
Lastly, if we hadn’t dicked about for several years we probably would have got 44 for £1bn given defence inflation of +10% pa
Once again Treasury incompetence comes to the fore
We don’t really have two deployable divisions. Not even one.
Best effort in sustained warfare against russia would be a brigade group.
Outside of Russia, while maintaining Estonia, a second large brigade for a non-enduring deployment or two battle groups.
The RN has merlin and the army Chinook, plus this buy. So can someone who knows explain what our combined lift means for sustaining what scale of formation for what duration of conflict against Russia as part of a NATO response?
I suspect when added together it’s enough to sustainin a brigade group with some of resilience. Not going to inflict a decisive defeat or a strategic one, but enough to ensure article five is triggered and a bloody nose given.
Now onto what we should be spending the big bucks on.
Not really. A Brigade Group is what is sustainable under harmony guidelines and force generation cycles for a extended period of time.
For a war against russia where both of those go out the window two (small) divisions is actually on the table.
Thanks. Are you sure we have the CS and CSS to field two divisions, presumably two brigades each, simultaneously?
Bit of a tangent I know. But if we are to answer how many helos, then we need to know at what scale we can deploy. Not would like to deploy.
Short answer: Yes, but would be very light on Artillery until Boxer 155 comes in.
Yes, yes, it’s a terribly small number but drones are the future, don’t you know; future of excellence don’t you know; export sales, don’t you know…
I’ll wait for the grown ups but this seems ridiculously small number of frames.
Would have preferred a Merlin order tbh. We need ASW more than the army needs a new copter ( and they’ve used their cash on Ajax ….).
It brings us back to the question of why didn’t the entire armed forces standardise on Merlin decades ago. The Merlin is a considerably heavier aircraft, but it’s footprint isn’t considerably larger (and that’s not really an issue, given that our ships are all designed to carry it anyway), while being faster, with a greater range, and a far larger payload. I appreciate it was also a decidedly more expensive aircraft, but a large chunk of that came from a relatively small order for a project that took a lot of development.
Oh well, another missed opportunity
That’s an inadequate order – 23 is woefully insufficient
This government is allergic to spending on defense.
We will find out tomorrow. If we are going to increase the budget faster it will be announced in the Spring Statement.
“Ah Yes but 23 of these fantastic,new helicopters is the equivalent of at least 100 of the old helicopters….And Made in Britain!!…And they will be networked helicopters and able to control uncrewed helicopters which can act as a swarm .This swarm will be able to effectively carry the Defence Procurement “CAN” down the road to save kicking it!!
😂😂😂👌
Can we allow autonomous rotories to carry the can? Isn’t it government policy to keep a politcian’s leg in the loop whenever kicking a can down the road? Or when doing the can can. MOD loves an arse to kick (or throw under a bus) too much to delegate kicking.
Spot on sir, spot on🤣🤣🤣
What a useless bit of posturing this is. Placate the unions, appear to be “doing something” on defence by ordering next to nothing.
Yep. Standard.
I’m pleased SOMETHING has been ordered. My fear is what is going out the back door in the meantime .
Afternoon mate, are they maritime cleared in any capacity???
Leanado salesmans Answer, ‘oh I’m sorry sir, you didn’t specify the Maritime sports pack’, but thats ok, we can start a development pathway towards your maritime package, the cost sir?
Tell you what, just sign a blank cheque and we will fill the rest in for you’.
We can guarantee the ‘we will close the factory ‘ Sabre rattling will start again in about 4 years time.
Chuck em another billion to perhaps make a 1000 bush bikes with square wheels, at million a pop??
As long as we keep an Italian company happy….
Only half joking!
With the 14 extended-range Chinooks on order as well , its a positive step . Part of the RAF helo balance will the future effect on total CH47 numbers of course…. story to be contined.
What many miss is that beyond the 14 ER Chinook there is meant to be a second tranche ordered to replace more of the older Chinooks.
We got to 60, which was arguably more than we can fly, and the total went down to 51, including the retirement of the much loved “BN.”
If it is not to drop further more will be required.
yep good point on total ch47 numbers- farewell BN a greart service innings
I saw the news come up on FB feed a couple of days ago wasn’t sure it was real till I saw it one here.
“On” here I guess i need my coffee.
23 ordered @£44 million apiece!!! So roughly a billion quid for starters…Bet they change the spec and start gold plating…So we end up with 17 ….Or 9(but you only need 9 because they are much more capable!!)…..Going for a lie down now….
Bugger all is better than nothing at all from this treasonous shower we have to endure at the moment. I am sure the MOD beanies will be looking to delay the start of this for as many years as possible so they don’t have to spend any money.
So be prepared for pictures of squadies hanging on to drones that are ‘controlled’ by the command group in the actual helicopter😀👍
Dont be giving them ideas!!erhaps soldiers can each have a personal helicopter pack like Inspector Gadget!!..We won’t need to buy any helicopters then!!!!
Not exactly a spectacular order but the govt has done well to negotiate a deal that persuades Leonardo to stay in Yeovil and invest in Proteus technology.
Our limited helicopter budget has obviously prioritised the long range SF Chinooks. I see posts suggesting that Poland have reduced their order for locally built AW149 from 35 to 22. Leonardo are obviously having to work hard for business. I wonder whether the govt are tempting Leonardo with the prospect of a buy of M346.
Agree Paul and you are right to highlight the rotary budget.
Last time I looked at the sums in detail, it seems we can afford about 6 helis a year. Which is not enough to keep even our limited rotary strength.
At the moment, we have the 14 extended-range Chinooks on order, at a cost of £1.5bn, and now the 23 Leonardo 149s, at a cost of £1bn. That is not a bad order book and there should still be some wonga left in the budget for this unmanned Proteus.
If the hoped-for budget increase to 3.5% of GDP ever comes to pass, we will I hope see some additional orders for the MUH.
Agree with you that the government has done well to get these two orders on the table, a year ago it looked far from certain.
Why though,what do they think they’ll do with them?
The only way they’d actually get used is to ferry more illegals over the Chanel
This irrelevant third world island isn’t going to fight anyone
No ones afraid of women and transexual warriors🤣🤣
Plenty were scared of Mrs Thatcher Mr Hue, by the way, is Lac Tiens still open for business, wonderful food….
23 at what cost for just 40% of the build? Is Yeovil worth it?
I ask because the AH64A cost £40 million, thats three times more than they cost had we purchased them from the US directly at only £12 million, or for the same money, the Army would have had circa 180. The “Merlin sub-hunting helicopters, had a projected cost of £1.1bn. The aircraft, after a protracted and painful development in collaboration with Italy, eventually staggered into service in the 2000s. The cost had climbed to £4.9bn in 2001 money, more than £100m each. That’s £9.3bn in today’s money – more than £210m per cab.” To put that into perspective, “In 2023, the Spanish navy bought eight US-made anti-submarine helicopters for $380m (£283m at current rates), or in other words £35m each. That’s a reasonable price for a sub-hunting helicopter. The Yeovil product costs roughly 20 times the going rate.”
How does the AW149 compare to the Black Hawk in terms of price and capability?