Leonardo’s UK helicopter chief has welcomed the award of the New Medium Helicopter contract and continued investment in autonomous systems, describing the decision as a long-term commitment to both capability and industry.

Nigel Colman, Managing Director of Helicopters UK at Leonardo, said the agreement to procure the AW149 alongside ongoing support for the Proteus uncrewed rotorcraft marked a significant step forward for the company’s partnership with the Ministry of Defence.

“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,” he said.

Britain orders 23 new AW149 helicopters

Colman said Leonardo would deliver a medium lift platform based on the AW149 that is designed to serve UK forces for decades. “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.”

He also underlined the industrial impact of the programme, linking the helicopter award directly to employment and supply chain stability.

“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.”

Under the wider agreement, Yeovil is set to become a centre of excellence for autonomous helicopters, building on the first flight of the Proteus demonstrator earlier this year. The deal also opens the pathway for future export orders of the AW149 to be built in the UK, expanding domestic workshare and supporting potential growth of up to 3,900 jobs in the South West.

George Allison
George Allison
George Allison is the founder and editor of the UK Defence Journal. He holds a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and specialises in naval and cyber security topics. George has appeared on national radio and television to provide commentary on defence and security issues. Twitter: @geoallison
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67 COMMENTS

  1. Really the UK Government had no choice but to buy from Westlands, the cost of loosing it and all the unemployment and fall out was too high. As always politics out ways common sense and what the military really want. In many ways its a reduction in numbers but the right thing to do MOD was between a rock and hard place buy more but off some one else and loose Westlands,
    I agree with the buy, not ideal but it had to be done, the cost in other ways would have been too high, buying semi british cost more but the money spent helps locally. There were no other deals any way. Starange many on here say by British move away from the weird USA, then when we do its slag the deal off, make your minds up.

    • Want and need can be confusing sometimes

      What the millitary need
      1) a meduim lift rotor in the right numbers
      2) a sovereign industrial capacity that can deliver

      What the military wanted

      Shiny things that the Americans had…..

      We should only ever be concerned with need.

      • That i gree on, trying to match the USA or just look good for the sake of it is how we fall down so often, we are not a super power and have nothing to prove. Sad though that we can not protect one RAF base from prop driven drone though, missile are too expensive and we have no guns.

        • How many people including myself have said the sovereign bases… infact all key UK infrastructure ( military, industrial, power) need a plan and the capabilities to fully defend it. We don’t have that many airbases anymore it would not take much to give them ground based air defence.

          • but be have nothing, not going to buy any thing just make do and mend and do bugger all. Not sure how the RAF regt are meant to defend a base when they have no gun airdefence or long range missle air defence. Like every thing is gap it it until we find out we need it then just cover the fact up and do nothing.

      • Our “sovereign” industry cannot deliver a needed number of medium Helos so that doesn’t really line up.

            • It’s what the budget can afford. Military need is never the primary driver.
              There were 41 Puma, then around 30, then 28 planned to be converted but only 24 due to the usual cuts.
              And, hey presto! The new low benchmark as if by magic becomes the new fleet number.

            • No but 23 is what is ordered not what can be delivered they could deliver 44 if ordered..

              If you’re talking about the price 1 billion is cheap for 23 ( 43 million each) as the US for 23 all up new Blackhawks and see how much it costs you.. but as they come in at up to 80m dollars a pop for small European contract your looking at well over a billion ( about 1.76 billion dollars).. why do you think they pulled out of the contract… Leonardo are doing it as cheap as you could get 23 modern medium combat rotors.

  2. Bit of context. Austria and Switzerland bought Blackhawk in 2024. Both orders were for 12 airframes, but with slightly different requirements. The costs were $900m and $1.05bn. Training, parts, and some weapons included.

    If we had bought 23 Blackhawks the cost would likely have been double the AW149 order price. Maybe we will order more AW149 in future, who knows. At least there are some on the order books.

    • More to the point – what would the cost of the original 44 units have been? I guarantee the unit price would have been significantly less.

      • Has it been discussed at all in official circles why the order is half the size it was originally? Obviously we all know the real reason, but how has it been posited?

    • We were offered Blackhawks as a direct from US stocks FMS deal back in the day at half the price we paid for the worthless Wildcats

      • We were offered airframes without any of the mission systems ect.. it’s always quoted how cheap we could have got Blackhawk but when you actually ask how much the whole fly way package allowing it to be integrated into the British armed forces would cost it always comes out as… more than AW149.. that is why anyone who actually buys a Blackhawk pays 55-80 million dollars per cab and we are paying 43 million pounds per AW149…

        Let’s just be clear the AW149 vs Blackhawk

        1) the AW149 is cheaper £43 million vs probably 60+ million dollars
        2) about 25-40% of the costs goes back into UK tax take vs Blackhawk feeding US tax take
        3) AW149 we keep 13,000 skilled weapons engineers in work and paying taxes vs Blackhawk keeping US skilled weapons engineers in work
        4) AW 149 we don’t pay probably 20,000 people unemployment benfits when we scrap another of our industrial hubs vs Blackhawk we do
        5) AW 149 we have sovereign control and can manage our own support vs Blackhawk, the U.S. manages our support and if they need it more than we do they will focus on them.
        6) AW 149 carriers more troops, Blackhawk carriers less troops…
        7) AW 149 we keep investing into the factory and workforce that will be developing and making our future large rotor drones..vs Black hawk we don’t have a factory or capability to make large rotor drones…

        • The downsides of the AW149 vs Blackhawk.

          There’s a significantly smaller logistical footprint with the AW149. There are many NATO nations flying or soon to be flying Blackhawks. Which means in theory logistics could be shared and bring down parts costs.

          The AW149 is only available as a green cab, there is no special forces version as per the MH60K/M versions of the Blackhawk. Though I’m positive a version could be created if there’s the funds.

          The Blackhawk’s performance and limitations are well known, the AW149 being new on the block is not. I am hoping due to the very small fleet size, we don’t have the same problems that plagued the NH90.

          Perhaps importantly, both aircraft can operate off a ship, whereas the Puma could not. This will give a lot more flexibility to joint helicopter command in supporting the Jungly Merlins and Chinooks for amphibious operations.

          Be interesting to see if the MOD still consider the AW149 as an interim solutions as per the original requirement?

          • I can’t comment on military performance but the basic A1W49/AW189 platform is already very well proven in offshore and SAR work, where reliability & availability are critical. If there were issues on a similar level to NH90 they would likely have shown up by now.

            • Neither is the Chinook, but we still use it. If you keep up with the cleaning and lashing everything with WD40. You can use a non marinised aircraft at sea. However, it is labour intensive.

              The main crux is that due to the much lower top weight and wider stance of the undercarriage. Means the aircraft can operate in harsher conditions at sea. Whereas a Puma is dangerous in this kind of environment.

              • We barely use chinook at sea because it doesn’t fit with its massive rotors.

                And this won’t fold either. So will again only fit on the carriers

          • AW149 is not new on the block and if you look at It’s history you will see how It was developed. Nothing to worry about really but plenty to be happy with given It’s British Built and very capable of doing the job.

            • Granted the AW149 isn’t brand new. But I’d raise the point that RAF/AAC/FAA fly the aircraft much harder than other nations. Meaning faults will happen much sooner and in greater frequency. For the AW149 due to its small fleet size are we just recreating the issue the Puma had, due to a lack of operational readiness. Or will the aircraft be more robust when flown as per the Puma?

        • An absurd comment for a platform that’s busy right now defending Akrotiri from drones. We should however put LMM on the Army ones.

  3. It was the only show in town at the end so had to be done. At least a third of the contract cost will make its way back to the treasury one way or another aswell, 20% VAT for starters, plus all other taxes/Nat Ins on the total supply chain. We’ve got to stop looking at it as the just the initial cost of contract.

  4. The announcement bodes well for the Proteus drone (I wonder if Leonardo have a name for it yet better than RWUAS phase 3).

        • Well, I’m very curious. We have US Red Indian names, a Puma, a Wessex, a Sea King, a Merlin, a Lynx, a mix of naming types, not consistent in a Tornado, Lightning, Typhoon sort of way.

          • It will probably have something when it goes into operation.. they don’t tend to just keep the factory designation .

          • Yes, the naming convention is a bit wierd though there are reasons/guidelines for this that kind of make sense: US built military helicopters have, Huey Cobra excepted, traditionally been named after Native American tribes, hence the Chinook, Apache etc. (Ive heard Beoing Apaches referred to simply as AH’s by the Army). In the UK traditionally Westland (and now Leonardo in the UK at least) used Mythological/Natural/Predator names for their helicopters so you would get Whirlwind (instead of Chickasaw), not sure about Wessex but it was location appropriate, Wasp (sigh…) then a host of cat names for Gazelle, Puma, Lynx and Wildcat (the feline naming convention seems to be linked to Aerospatiale, now Eurocopter, as they also have the EC725 Caracal). Just to be different the Sikorsky SH3 SeaKing kept its name when built by Westland because, well, it sounds great. For the EH/AW101 they obviously couldn’t think of a cat so it become the Merlin for Royal Navy (Cormorant in RCAF service) . AFAIK the mythology idea is carried through into the Jupiter and Juno names for the fleet of H145 and EC135’s. Its quite possible that everyone is so relieved/overjoyed at finally getting the order across the line that they forgot so there is no confirmed name yet. Hmm, Serval perhaps?

          • “Scrumpy MaCBigChopper”.

            There. I have Officially Given It a name which Is entirely appropriate and accurate given It’s being built in Cider Land and It’s size.

            Job Done. 😎😎😎

            ( I now add this to my previous name “Trumpest” )

  5. I don’t actually give a damn why this last minute mishandled decision has been finally made, it’s done, we need these Helicopters and for that reason it is most welcome as it’s needed and way overdue.
    Yes it’s 23 and that number is just plane odd but it replaces the remaining pumas 1 for 1 ! And doing that is in itself a minor miracle as other than the SSBNs.

    In fact I can’t think of anything else in the last 30 years that MOD have replaced 1 for 1, it’s always been “fewer but more capable and world class” MOD BS.

    Now for a big deep breath as originally it was 44 Helicopters to replace 23 Pumas, 3 Bell 212, 3 Bell 412 and 6 AS365 which is 39 replaced by 44, now for MOD in 2021 that’s really odd.

    So since then they have decided to keep the 6 x AS365, buy 6 x H145M and now 23 AW149 so that’s 35 Airframes, so not too bad really.

    As to why they decided to do it I suspect it had nothing to with MOD or the obvious need but Political pressure from the Unions, MPs a dire bi election and the impending massive political fallout of closing AW down at a time when Europe needs to increase its Defence industry.

    Oh and it looks like the DIP is finally due !

    Rachel Reeve’s makes her Autumn speech Tomorrow, that’s when HMG budgets for 2025/26 and that either delivers a Boost to Defence spending or it doesn’t.🤞🏻
    I’m feeling pretty confidant that it will be a boost and an announcement of future incremental increases for 27/28 and 29 to get us us up to 3% GDP by next election.

    • I’m suspicious and worried that the Dauphins are included in this 23.
      I understood they weren’t.
      Now, I’m worried.
      If they are, it’s a cut.

      • If the total budget goes up we can start to increase total numbers, and replace older kit that needs replacing. Until then every cut means something else survives, and every survival means something else is cut. You just have to hope that MOD prioritization is as good as it can be. Lord knows they’ve had the practice.

      • I don’t think they can be Daniele from what I understand the Leonardo contract is 1billion for at least 23 AW149s with options on more.

        • Hi J.
          We’ll see, I’ve seen it too many times with the MoD I’m afraid.
          If it’s 23 for 24 Puma, plus the 6 HCs and the existing Dauphin I’m pleased.
          It should also be remembered that the RAF bought 40 Puma, and had around 31,33 in the earky 2000s. Saw a item only last night when I was studying N Ireland stuff that when Puma force was at Aldergrove, so 230 Sqn, there were 18 there and 13 more at Benson with 33 Sqn.
          So 23 does not replace the force at all, it just equals the new low benchmark.
          A phenomenon I’ve highlighted many times with the RN Frigate fleet.

          • Yes I agree.. I’m hope the language of 23 being the minimum means we may see more orders in the future.

            I’m sort of hoping that the actions of the last few days may have finally smashed it into the heads of the treasury types that the world new knew has gone and it’s now a great power chessboard in which war can come to you at any moment.. 5 days ago they would have put the risk of a uk sovereign territory being attacked within the week as none existent..

          • and an additional 6 ex SAAF J model Pumas in the early 2000s as attrition replacements, Also a pair were captured in the Falklands as airworthy (+two A109 Hirundos) – all up circa 48 Pumas.

            • Ahh the ex Argie ones, I’d forgotten them!
              Goldmine of kit that came our way, pity they got rid of the Sqns worth of Oerlikon AA they brought back.
              The RAuxAF had a Sqn with it for a while.
              One gun ended up outside the NADOC at Nap Hill I recall.

      • Actually D – the Dauphin numbers may already be down by one. 6 June 2022, Dauphin serial ZJ781, was written off in an accident and not replaced (according to wikipedia).

  6. Just a quick why it’s important we did not succumb to the siren voice that everything foreign ( well American) is just more sexy and better than British stuff.. when people look at the cheap Blackhawks We were offered, they forgot it was for essentially airframes only without any of the mission systems ect.. it’s always quoted how cheap we could have got Blackhawk but when you actually ask how much the whole fly way package allowing it to be integrated into the British armed forces would cost it always comes out as… more than AW149.. that is why anyone who actually buys a Blackhawk pays 55-80 million dollars per cab and we are paying 43 million pounds per AW149…

    Let’s just be clear the AW149 vs Blackhawk from a wider geostrategic point and one small practical tactical point..

    1) the AW149 is cheaper £43 million vs probably 60+ million dollars
    2) AW149 about 25-40% of the costs goes back into UK tax take vs Blackhawk feeding US tax take
    3) AW149 we keep 13,000 skilled weapons engineers in work and paying taxes vs Blackhawk keeping US skilled weapons engineers in work
    4) AW 149 we don’t pay probably 20,000 people unemployment benfits when we destroy another of our industrial hubs vs Blackhawk we do pay loads of benfits.
    5) AW 149 we have sovereign control and can manage our own support and supply vs Blackhawk, the U.S. manages our support supply and if they need it more than we do they will focus on them ( I was discussing this with someone who knows and they described how in GW2 when they had to source supplies from US suppliers they were told they could only have them once the US military orders we satisfied )
    6) AW 149 carriers more troops, Blackhawk carriers less troops…
    7) AW 149 we keep investing into the factory and workforce that will be developing and making our future large rotor drones..vs Black hawk we don’t have a factory or capability to make large rotor drones…

    Sovereignty capability is all.. nations who do not invest in their own sovereign capabilities do not survive history.. alliances fail and shift.. your own is your, own guard it and treasure it.

    • Absolutely right. While the professional military wins the short wars, it can only hope to survive big ones long enough for industry and the rest of the country to step up. The better the state our industry is in, the less time they’ll need to survive unaided.

    • Worth remembering also that Blackhawk is at the end of its development life cycle, AW149 is a pretty new airframe.
      BH is capable, don’t get me wrong, but there aren’t any newer and more powerful engines coming out for it, or avionics packages, etc. that we can piggyback on from the US military. They’re going to start replacing theirs fairly soon.
      So the long-term upgrade benefits (something we’re historically bad at anyway) don’t tip it to BH either. We’d have to pay our own way development-wise for whichever airframe we got.

  7. My only concern is when will tin actually get cut on these? Will this be another Starmer/Reeves fiddle it until it’s someone else’s problem to find the money so they can carry on their social experiments with the great bed ridden masses? Time will tell but time we don’t have.

    • I fancy a bit of bed ridden to be honest.. did you know Florence Nightingale took to her bed for 30 years after the Crimea war.. essentially with some or other cronic condition that caused fatigue and “fever”.. she got over it in her 60s and got out of bed in her late 60s after 30 years.. was then active and lived to 90… apparently 30 years of bed rest could be good for you… who knew 🤷

  8. Well at least the AW149 has UK sovereignty and design authority, therfore we can upgrade the software in Yeovil to counter new enemy threats as they appear, rather than waiting for a global update from an American or Italian headquarters. Unlike the Black Hawk, which often requires US permission and proprietary codes to modify, the UK’s AW149 uses an open systems architecture that allows the UK to easily plug in British-made mission equipment … radios, maps, mission planners etc. without having to redesign the whole helicopter.
    The AW149 aircraft seems to be is an incredibly well-sorted, modern and survivable machine that puts the UK at the front of helicopter tech … However, the UK is paying a high price for a small number of very capable helicopters to ensure it doesn’t lose its ability to build helicopters entirely. I’m sure other orders will materialise over time.

    UK’s AW149 –
    The All-Aspect Protection – best in class.
    Defensive Aids Suite – best in class.
    Modular Advanced Platform Protection System (MAPPS) – best in class.
    The Infrared (IR) suppression – best in class.
    Miysis DIRCM (Directed Infrared Countermeasure) – best in class.

    • I wonder if your list is just desirable, and the order will produce rotary assets that are fitted for, but not with those capabilities. That would be typical of our politicians and the MOD

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