The Ministry of Defence has signed a £165 million contract extension with Leonardo to maintain and sustain the Royal Navy’s fleet of 54 Merlin helicopters.

The five-year deal covers 30 Merlin Mk2 anti-submarine warfare helicopters and 24 Merlin Mk4 amphibious lift aircraft, providing vital capabilities for maritime patrol, airborne surveillance, and troop transport.

Of the jobs supported, 200 are based at Leonardo’s Yeovil facility in Somerset, with 800 more sustained across the broader UK supply chain—including operations at RNAS Culdrose in Cornwall.

“Our fleet of world-class Merlin helicopters provide the Royal Navy with a vital advantage over our adversaries, keeping our carrier strike groups safe and enhancing their battle-winning capability,” said Defence Procurement Minister Maria Eagle MP.

“This investment demonstrates our unwavering commitment to maintaining cutting-edge defence capabilities that keep us safe, while utilising defence as an engine for economic growth, supporting 1,000 well-paid jobs across the UK.”

Mark Langrill, DE&S Director Rotary Wing and Uncrewed Air Systems, said:

“We are pleased to continue our successful partnership with Leonardo Helicopters in ensuring that the Royal Navy’s fleet of Merlin helicopters remain in optimal condition. This contract extension will strengthen our ongoing collaboration and contribute to the security and economic growth of our nation, whilst ensuring high levels of aircraft availability and sustaining highly skilled jobs across the UK.”

The Merlin Mk2 variant is designed for anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, equipped with Sting Ray torpedoes and .50 calibre M3M machine guns. These aircraft also support humanitarian missions, maritime patrols, and search-and-rescue operations.

The Mk4 model, meanwhile, is optimised for battlefield support and can carry loads up to 3.8 tonnes, playing a central role in operations such as the recent Arctic deployment, Exercise CLOCKWORK.

Leonardo, the prime contractor, will deliver the contract with support from Lockheed Martin and Serco. “We’re keeping the Merlin fleet supported and available, so it’s ready to fly whenever and wherever it’s called upon,” said Nigel Colman, Managing Director of Leonardo Helicopters UK. He added that the firm is also working with the MoD on future support through the upcoming Rotary Wing Enterprise agreement.

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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  2. OK, I know that all assets need support contracts but when are we going to see any news about any actual orders for new or additional assets ?

    I’m guessing we will have to wait until after the review but it would be great to see a few orders being reported.

    Wouldn’t it be fantastic to see an order placed for more F35’s, a couple of squadrons of Typhoons, an additional bunch of Ajax or another Astute ?

    • There won’t be any more than the planned order of F35, no more typhoons.
      Dunno about ground. But we won’t get another Astute, we no longer produce those reactors

      • I was sort of just playing Fantasy Ordering !

        All I read lately is cuts and support packages. It makes me wonder just when all the cuts will stop and we get to start bulking out again.

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    • Unlikely Ajax unless the ARES IFV plan is accepted.
      Hope for Typhoons.
      F35b batch 2 for me a certainty, as usually they announce old news as new but cuts will happen to pay for it.
      Standard HMG.

      • Daniele we desperately need more ASW helicopters as we don’t mount ASW Torpedos anymore and don’t have ASROC or another delivery method. I don’t really care about NMH simply because in time of war all those lovely civilian Helicopters will be re questioned (complete with pilots). But we really do need a new B2 AW101 and @60 of them, daft thing is of we did I suspect we’d get more export orders than in the past as Japan, Italy and Poland all need more.

        • Hi mate.
          Totally agree. Said before on here I’d take more Merlin over more F35, they’re a greater pinch point with only 30 HM2s, 11 HM1s discarded and the ASCS role thrown in due to cuts.

          • The NMH program being effectively cancelled, I’d make a small bet that the SDR will tag an order for more UK Merlins onto the Polish buy.

  3. Following on from the £1.6b contract for armoured vehicle readiness it does look like the SDR will be about availability of strategic assets rather than increases in numbers. What’s the timetable for fixed wing AEW drones to replace Crowsnest? That could free up more Merlins for ASW.

      • Yep, the cut has happened. The Pumas have gone and NMH effectively cancelled – just half a dozen H145s bought. I live in hope of 3 more T31s – ASW spec with Merlins.

  5. This is good but we need more Merlin 2s than the 30 we have .. this is without challenge the very best maritime rotor on the plant and it’s really still a new airframe.

    With only 30 there are some big issues and that is that over 50% of the future escort fleet will not have a hull sonar worth spit.. so as the sub surface threat increases, with China now mass building a fleet of SSNs actually worth the name, and even none state actors now able to use sub surface drones.. Merlin’s on T31 and T45 when independently deployed may become a critical requirement, your also wanting a Merlin for the MRSS

    So In future your wanting the following deployments
    8 for the carrier ( 4 EAW 4 ASW)
    2 for 2 MRSS deployments
    4 for T45 and T31 deployments
    3 for T26 deployments

    For 17 deployments the rule of 3 means your wanting 51+ Merlin 2s in total.

    Also lets be honest we are not building a new large crewed maritime rotor.. so we may need these to go on until 2050+

    Also as swam drones become a thing you will need a crewed command and control node ( your not doing this from your large surface combatant for obvious reasons) Merlin will need to be adapted to take on this role.

    Personally therefore I would like to see a steady eddy order of new cabs over the next decade.. say 4-6 per year.

    I would also like to see an integrated ASM. As I think wildcat is really to small and limited as a good small ships flight, Merlin should take on all the roles including ASuW.

    The wildcat is a hold over and direct descendent of the lynx from when the RN had 3000 ton range escorts that could not take a 14,600 Kg large maritime medium rotor.. as every escort can happly take a Merlin I would give the army most of the navy wildcats with a small number kept to support amphibious landings ( the marines ) in a close air support ISTAR and anti drone role.

    At the same time I would equip all the army wildcats with LMM.. that would give the army 50 fast rotors armed with 20LMM that can attack infantry and soft targets, drones and other slow air threats and even armour below MBT level ( and on not sure an MBT hit with a volley of Mach 1.5 LMMs would be up to much)

    So for me max out the Merlin 3 fleet to well over 60 to cover the fact most of the RN fleet cannot now locate a sunken sky scrapper let alone a small autonomous undersea suicide drone and give all the wildcats to the army with more LMMs than you can shake a stick at…

    Killing a host of birds with one stone a massive boost the RN ASW capability, covering the massive weakness in T45 and T31, increasing the lethality of the Army with 60 LMM armed small and fast rotors that can protect against drones and other rotors even ground attack aircraft, have a great ISTAR package, and put serious kinetic effect via close air support.

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