The British Army has taken delivery of two Airbus H145 Jupiter HC Mk2 helicopters in Brunei as part of a GBP 148 million Ministry of Defence programme, the UK Defence Journal understands.
The aircraft, operated by 667 Squadron Army Air Corps, will be used for jungle training and take over tasks previously carried out by the now-retired Puma HC2 fleet. Roles will include medical evacuation, troop transport, underslung load operations, firefighting, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance, and general aviation support.
The MoD described the delivery as a significant milestone in one of Defence’s fastest-moving recent procurement programmes, with the aircraft reaching Brunei just two years after the contract was placed. A total of six helicopters are being procured to serve both the Army Air Corps in Brunei and the RAF’s 84 Squadron in Cyprus, with all six expected to be in theatre by the end of 2026.
The programme supports 250 UK jobs at Airbus in Oxfordshire, with a separate £33.6 million support and service contract announced in December sustaining a further 30 jobs, including eight personnel deployed to Brunei to maintain the aircraft.
Mark Langrill, Director of Rotary Wing and Uncrewed Air Systems at the National Armaments Director Group, was quoted as saying: “Getting these aircraft to Brunei on this timescale has taken genuine commitment from everyone involved – our MOD team, colleagues in the Army and RAF, and the team at Airbus Helicopters UK.”
He added: “We’ve demonstrated that accelerated acquisition can work, and we’ve done it in a way that delivers real capability to the front line while supporting UK industry.”
Group Captain J Brooks, Senior Responsible Owner for the programme, said: “The rapid delivery of this programme demonstrates the ability to deliver a modern and reliable capability that provides value for money to Defence.”
Hold on… We bought Airbus Juno’s but we didn’t decide on the NMH contract at the same time? Yeesh.
aw149 can carry 16/19 troops from a spec sheet. H145 can only carry 10
As the army only has 6 troops that’s fine.
Sorry just re read the comment. Either way the orders for the H145 was 2 years ago. But the start of the MH was 2021, and then one by one the companies left. So, the tender was for 44, but we got 23, unless there will be another batch.
I think the 23 are just to replace the Puma. The 412s and 212s were replaced by Jupiters, and the Dauphins will soldier on a bit longer, so perhaps will be replaced by further AW149s? Or Jupiters?
I did read that the Aw149 standard replacement Puma HC2 and the Bell 412 Griffin and the Bell 212 and Airbus AS365 Dauphin. But that doesn’t make sense, so the Jupiters could be low priority operations. I want the government to buy a couple of HC-50s.
But the Hc-50 obviously would be special VIP aircraft. Won’t happen, shame.
Jupiter can only carry 10 pax, rather than Puma’s 16. Is that acceptable for troop transport?
People need to remember these are largely for training roles, freeing up the more ‘combat orientated’ airframes for use elsewhere.
A large part of this deployment is also training of small cadres of special forces also.
I’d rather these smaller types be used here than tie up dwindling numbers of larger airframes that would be better used elsewhere.
Absolutely bang on.
Hiya DM. I’m keeping an eye out on the Dauphin fleet. They’d better not try to squeeze in the existing AW149 order into this role, without a dedicated Dauphin replacement ! Otherwise we are facing another cull in numbers.
Hi mate.
Others are saying they won’t.
I think they might well, cuts in numbers are a constant.
Labour and their great expansion, eh? Nuclear, AUKUS, and GCAP are going to eat the military alive.
Cheers DM – spot on re the AUKUS elephant in the room!
Are these basically our closest equivalent to the little bird helicopters that the US uses then?
Now we have no Gazelle, yes.
I liked the Scout myself.
But these aren’t used to support SF the way the Little Birds are, they act as a Taxi for the Jungle Warfare School in Brueni where the Jungle phase of selection has taken place.
So non deployable, cheapish, and suitable for the Brueni and Cyprus roles.
No problem for Brunei, used the Bell 212 previously (I think it was at the time) and in the jungle they couldn’t lift more than 8 blokes and kit, and had to drop the lads off in multiple sorties! Modern platform ideal for what is for, plus with a winch will be the CASEVAC bird. Goes to show you can actually get a decent, modern airframe (albeit already known and in use) quickly into the more simple roles, if the will to do so is there.
The H145 Jupiter 2 works at one level: both Cyprus and Brunei have ordered 6 of them, so there is some operational synergy there.
A key driver is cost. With the AW149, the RAF was originally hoping for a price tag of under £25m a heli; it has turned out to be £43m. Which is incredibly expensive for a medium lift helicopter. Hence the planned 44 had to be reduced to 23.
The H145 looks to cost under half that, £19m, so its attraction is obvious, given how small our helicopter budget is. Even that figure is sky high, as the flyaway cost iof an H145 is reported as under £9m. Airbus is getting a very juicy 3-year maintence and training contract out of it and of course there is close to £30m VAT to gift to HMT.
Still, it is at least a new heli and it has a user base of 1,600, so is certainly proven. For 9 passengers I would read maybe 8 combat-laden troops, so a section lift. It will be fine for Brunei and Cyprus and for the training, medevac, observation and SF roles.
In reality 40-50million is the going rate.. if they ordered them a decade ago it may have been 25 million a pop…
Brunei is paying for them. That’s why it’s been so quick. Well not quick but not painfully slow.
Are they? I’d read before that the costs of the resident Gurkha Battalion are met by the Sultan, but not any other assets.
Still seems an awful of money for 6 helicopters that cost on average 7.5 million a piece.