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.
The defence budget doesn’t have the funds. It can only run to a handful of new helicopters a year. The mini budget for helicopters has been devoted to acquiring the 50 rebuilt Apaches over the last 3 years. Next in line is the order for 6 Juno Mk 2. Then the 14 new extended-range Chinooks. @ £100m+ apiece.
Can’t see how the NMH will be affordable.until 2030 at the earliest, so expect deliberately slow progress from HMG and MOD, with more words than action.
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.
Which is a military derived version of the AW139…
Maybe, as it’s a one-horse race, they need to rewrite the requirement to fit the helicopter.
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
Quite….
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
And, of course, the MP had no interest whatsoever in national defence, in numbers, or cost effective price, he was only interested in his constituents. Yes, I know that’s their job. And it is part of the problem, political indifference. Oh, we’re alright Jack, we’ve ordered 20 AW for ludicrous amounts and the military is shafted again. But look at the jobs! Again, and every time, industry takes priority over the military with HMG and the military suffers accordingly. That’s fine if UKPLC is your priority, and of course it is important. But we know the extra tax revenue does… Read more »
Well Alex, we managed it just fine with AH64E didn’t we. So why would a Blackhawk procurement be any different?
Sensible procurement, it isn’t rocket science.
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.
Not now, but years ago when they ignored it?
350 million for 40 plus I recall.
I suspect the issue now is how small the order is going to be..but HMG wanting it at the same price per unit as a large order.
I take it you don’t like Leonardo or the helicopters built at Yeovil ?
Is that for John, mate?
Shhh….W***c*t is one of his “things”….
Don’t start me on that one Daniele🤣🤣😂😂
I only want good equipment, procured in the right numbers ABC.
Get Leonardo involved and that simply won’t happen, as we all well know.
We will be lucky to get 20 extremely expensive and late helicopters.
We’ve called it often enough.
So lets see with this.
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!!!!
You joking! Id be happy with 30 and that’s below what is needed.
The contract is to replace the RAF Puma fleet, which is currently 23 strong.
I recall the military requirement was for over 40, and included the replacement of:
The Army Dauphin Fleet. 8 cabs.
The Army Bell helicopters in Brunei with 7 Flight, which was originally a part of the contract.
The RAF Griffon, with 84 Sqn in Cyprus.
We know the latter two types will now be replaced by 6 HC1145, which I agree with, I think FMH would be a waste there.
So that in itself reduces the numbers needed.
Of course, the Puma fleet was bigger than that too, and had already been whittled down.
I think it may have dropped to 18 now.
18 Jonathan, that’s insane, build a production line for 18 airframes!!!
The lunatics really have taken over the asylum.
Hey mate,
I’m honestly not sure what we’d be using them for, we don’t have a significant medium lift capability, haven’t had for ages in reality, and so our armed forces have adapted to essentially not using one. We’re not the US, who can actually deliver a heliborne assault and suchlike.
I would very much like to have a medium lift capability, you and I have talked about it before, just not sure what we’d do with it…
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 🙄 🤔 😟
Failure…..😁
Assume you mean as a troop carrier vs the ASW HM2?
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,… Read more »
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🙄
That’s a lot of wishful thinking on a Helicopter platform that is not proven to do any of those roles except transport
To be fair, all the ones Jonathan described are transport, barring ASW.
It makes a lot of sense to me.
I did not actually state the platform, just said they should amalgamate into one common platform…most other places do it and it’s not exactly hard or a new idea.. most medium mill rotors develop in a general transportation then specialist role.
Hi Jonathan, I tend to keep an eye on the European country that is most proactive, expansive and buys sensibly and compare us with them. As they ditch the old Russian / Polish Soviet Helicopters they have settled for just 3 Types, AH64, AW149 and AW-101 Merlin for ASW, what’s missing from their mix is a heavy troop / logistics type such as the Chinook. I do actually think that given the present Governments relationship with the TU’s and stated desire to secure UK Defence industry that the AW149 is a shoe in for the contract, and it’s not a… Read more »
To be honest I think in the ideal world having a large medium maritime rotor and a standard medium rotor for the army is a great idea and Merlin is the very best, but I just think the forces a re losing so much mass that if they could move to a common 1200kg medium rotor ordered in quantity..they would get more bang for their buck.
12000kg not 1200kg
Are these supposed to be an interim until the NATO next gen rotary? I think the competition for that is running at the moment, although at a longer timescale.