The contract for the UK’s new medium helicopter programme is anticipated to be awarded later this year, pending the necessary evaluations and approvals, according to Defence Minister Maria Eagle.
The update came during a House of Commons session on 10 February 2025, where the Minister for Defence Procurement and Industry addressed questions about the timetable for the crucial defence acquisition.
Responding to a question from Edward Morello, MP for West Dorset, Eagle stated: “The new medium helicopter competition is at the evaluation and approval stage. If everything goes well, I anticipate a contract award later this year, subject to all the usual approvals.”
Morello highlighted the importance of defence contracts for local employment and training opportunities, particularly for firms such as Leonardo, which operates in nearby Yeovil and employs many of his constituents.
“A significant number of my constituents contribute to the defence sector, whether through apprenticeships, graduate roles or skilled employment. Many were schooled in West Dorset and now work in the surrounding areas, including for firms such as Leonardo in the neighbouring constituency of Yeovil,” he said.
“What assurances can the Minister give that contracts such as the new medium helicopter will be awarded quickly so that the futures of the many apprentices and employees in the defence sector are protected?”
Acknowledging the potential impact on the local workforce, Eagle responded: “The hon. Gentleman is right: some of these programmes can take a long time to get to contract. In fact, this programme experienced delays in securing outline business case approval under the previous Government. I hope that we can get it to the end of the line as swiftly as possible, in accordance with the current process, and that some of his constituents will benefit from having work to do on the new programme.”
The new medium helicopter program, which will replace the ageing Puma fleet and other legacy systems, is a major acquisition aimed at improving the UK Armed Forces’ mobility and tactical lift capabilities.
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Personally I wouldn’t consider by the end of the year “soon”, but until they are actually ordered I’m not going to hold my breath.
Man, this has been a slow burn.
We just take too long to select equipment…Its a joke
Because they don’t have the funds to actually buy any or a reasonable amount of helicopters
Of course the UK Gov. have, it just spent in other things.
It’s a flaming helicopter that has already been designed and is essentially an off the self purchase, there is only one bidder left in the contact race..how long exactly does it take…
Maybe because it doesn’t meet the requirement ? Mod has done this loads of times. Only horse in the race and you end up with a donkey . Why would you rush through a pretty unremarkable helicopter that in over 10 years has sold 100 ish .
It’s actually a pretty good rotor and in the end it’s better to have than not have..the propensity to get exactly what I want has been the thing that has killed the mass in the UK forces..an order in hand for something that does the job is better than not ordering anything…I assure you it’s alway better to do something over doing nothing.
“Why would you rush through a pretty unremarkable helicopter that in over 10 years has sold 100 ish .”
Maybe because the little sister AW 139 sold around 1500?
But it’s not a AW139 🤷♀️ it is an Italian military certified military helicopter .called the AW149.
I wonder whether the Crowsnest Merlins and SDR expeditionary thinking on the total helicopter pool are the key. For example if and when these could be made available for the T31 frigates and/or Argus and the Bays. I don’t think the AW149 can lift anything like a Merlin.
Unfortunately Jonathan, you know as well as me that won’t be the case.
The AW149 is already a ‘very’ expensive over specifified helicopter.
So cue UK specific modifications and production, it’s cost will jump 20/30% and the RAF will probably get an almost pointless 20 airframes.
But Leonardo will be saved, huge surprises all round!
Imagine how many refurbished (and upgraded to M standard) ex US Army Blackhawks you could buy for the
same money, 50,60??
Same old shit, dig a big hole and chuck the defence budget in it.
Couldn’t agree more, particularly as our prinipal allies already operate Blackhawk. Buy it and get thinhs moving.
I’d argue they’re not that cheap as they pulled out of the competition due to price being wanted too low
Like UH-60 will not have “So cue UK specific modifications”
This is a major pitfall of UK MoD procurement. They need to find a way to do the modifications (if any) reasonably and cheaply. There isn’t any reason a USA certified plane is not ‘good enough’ for UK use, other than swapping out radios. See: Watchkeeper, Ajax
Yes but they are the only company that actually put in a bid within the cost framework. Sikorsky pulled out because of profitability so we can with accuracy assume that the Blackhawk was not going to be cheaper.
Well let’s hope we get more than 6…
I hope they buy the numbers they really need ,we had at one time a big helicopter fleet raf ,navy and army, but now let’s see what happens!!!!
Well the merlin is a failure so what was wrong with the super puma?
The Merlin isn’t a failure. But it’s also a completely different class of helicopter
The Merlin was a massive success for what it was actually designed for a very large, long range high endurance medium size maritime rotor …infact it’s the very best of that type of beast out there, it should only ever have been purchased as the RNs main medium rotor and the marines rotor, be used what it was not was a 1200kg weight battlefield taxi.
It took a long and surreptitiously route to get to Merlin but finally it’s here in all it’s glory and fully operational. Remember it was a replacement for the Sea King. Now we are looking at replacement of Puma. All very different beasts. The Merlin has filled the Sea Kings boots and more very successfully.
Where in earth have you read Merlin is a failure? However Super Puma would look a good choice but we know it’s going to be AW149!
I’ve always thought super puma would of been a good choice for our forces , can’t understand why never consistent .Should of gone for this Chopper years ago, more pay load range etc still HMG know what there doing has ever 🙄 🤔 😟
It is worth remembering that the RAF essentially have zero interest in the medium rotor fleet, which I suspect is one of the key reasons it’s been delayed and steadily got smaller. The RAF is only really interested in chinook as it’s core strategic lift platform and buying something that essentially transports 1 squad of squaddies around the battlefield is I sense low on its agenda. After all the RAF has been happily capitalising it chinook fleet from the original 30 in 1980 to around 75 airframes now and is replacing 14 of it’s original airframes with a new buy, while the medium rotor fleet is now down to 18 pumas.
After all the RAF only ever operated 48 true medium battlefield rotors..then in the early 2000s cut that to 24.
There is also the commitment to NATOs next generation rotary capability program, which is essentially a medium rotor programme for the 2030s…2040s the problem is that programme is completely the wrong time for the UK..which needs a new medium rotor for the army now and a new navy rotor for the late 2020s
The solution has been a money wasting bodge job…a tiny order of medium rotors for the army, which will lead to high cost per unit and an expensive life extensions for Merlin to extend its life out to 2040….while investing in the join NATO programme which many or may not give a new medium rotor design out in the late 2030s.
So I suspect the delay may simply be MOD negotiating down the number of airframes, while try to keep the unit cost under control for a tiny order.
Personally I think it may have been better to collapse all the programmes and go for mass and a good long single sovereign building programme.. order 24 for the army now, then a follow in order of 36 for the marines ( replacing Merlin) , then 30 ASW versions for the navy to replace Merlin mk2, then 33 to replace the army wild cats and finally another 24 ASW to replace the navy wild cats.. essentially you would get a 20 year long production programme building 150+ rotors.. the Uk would then operate 1 medium rotor type ( like the US does) instead of one small medium, one medium medium medium and one large medium.
The Navy may bitch about a 12000kg ASW platform not being as effective Merlin..but almost all other nations happily use this size rotor and in the end the navy would get over 50 of them so mass of ASW is increased.
The RAF believes that any thing that flies should belong to them! They don’t even like the AAC with what it’s got now,let the Army have the MH for the battlefield role and leave the RAF to get on with what they really want to do! Not going to happen of course🙄