The UK’s Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) has finalised a contract valued at £122 million for the procurement of six Airbus H145 helicopters, aimed at bolstering aviation support for British forces stationed in Brunei and Cyprus.
This announcement follows the Ministry of Defence’s (MOD) November 2023 disclosure through a Voluntary Transparency Notification of its plans to acquire the H145s.
The Airbus H145 is not new to the UK Defence sector, being integral to the UK Military Flying Training System where it aids in the training of helicopter aircrew across various conditions including maritime, mountain, and search and rescue operations.
The newly acquired helicopters will primarily support operations in Brunei, aiding in jungle training and critical medical evacuation tasks. In Cyprus, stationed within the Sovereign Base Areas (SBAs), the helicopters will facilitate training, joint military exercises with the Republic of Cyprus, and are also tasked with emergency response and aerial firefighting duties.
Since 2022, the interim aviation support in these regions has been provided by the Puma HC2 helicopters. The transition to the Airbus H145 marks a continued commitment by the UK to its defence activities in Brunei and Cyprus, enhancing operational efficiency and effectiveness through fleet commonality.
Minister for Defence Procurement James Cartlidge said:
“Reforming defence acquisition to make every pound count and rapidly provide our Armed Forces with critical military capabilities is essential to our nation’s security. As I announced at the International Military Helicopters conference, purchasing the H145s will support our forces in Brunei and on Cyprus with a trusted capability whilst avoiding unnecessary over-speccing, and overspending.”
Director Helicopters at Defence Equipment & Support, Keith Bethell, said:
“I am immensely proud of the work done by the Multi Helicopter Platform Delivery Team along with Army Capability and Airbus Helicopters UK in securing contract award for the purchase of six Airbus H145 platforms to provide aviation support to British Forces in Brunei and on Cyprus. This contract is a great example of an agile acquisition process that has secured new modern equipment to meet our Armed Forces enduring requirements, such as Jungle Training in Brunei and a wide range of aviation services to British Forces based on Cyprus.”
The Airbus H145 helicopters are expected to assume their operational roles in Brunei and Cyprus by 2026. The helicopters will be constructed at Airbus Helicopters’ facility in Germany before being shipped to the UK for modifications at the Airbus Helicopter UK’s site in Kidlington, Oxfordshire.
The Airbus H145s, to be flown by both RAF and Army aircrew, will continue to be centrally managed from the Airbus Helicopter UK’s Kidlington site, which serves as the Coordinating Design Organisation for the Ministry of Defence’s Airbus H145s.
Is it just me or does £122 million for 6 helicopters seem insane. Even with support contracts.
This is why we can’t have nice things even though we spend £50 billion + a year.
A bog standard 145 that you or I might buy is a snip at E10M (I might take 3) … add on the military equipment and so on and then the support package that looks like the going rate – E20M per a/c.
The most I am seeing for brand new is $10m. And that is dollars. We must be getting a huge amount of addons to bump it up to 20 million POUNDS per chopper.
It’s E9.7M on the airbus website.
That’s still almost 2.5x the new price we are paying.
It’s a military machine, and the thing i don’t know is how long the support package is for…?
You may have a point, but 3 years of support and training costs are usually very high – and the £122m figure might include a simulator etc etc. The devil is in the detail.
See: https://www.helihub.com/2023/11/16/royal-air-force-plans-for-six-airbus-h145s-raise-value-for-money-questions/
I couldn’t agree more Jim. 122Mio for 6 helos (small helos at that) is simply eye-watering!
Who in their right mind thought this contract was value for money!
As you seem to know about helicopter prices, how much did you pay for your last one, did you get a good trade in!
My last aeroplane went for £500. It was fun to fly but no longer affordable!
A deposit on the H175s well be buying for FMH.😉
Sensible purchase.
FMH is over the top for these tasks and needs to be kept for deployable battlefield support.
Indeed no point using a full military medium lift rotor in these roles when a reasonably priced light rotor will do.
Hi M8, Any idea what has happened with H135M they ordered and then mothballed ? Or it is one of this’s things MOD hopes everyone forgets about. Even if they just used them as light weight transports it would make some sense .
Evening mate. No idea I’m afraid.
On lease to Australia apparently according to posts further on👍
I thought they were being stored somewhere in Northern Ireland? But Jacko might be right?
£20M+ for a small Helicopter, that frankly looks like something from a Playmobile set… wow, who’s ‘gaining’ from this deal then?
I won’t stand for Playmobil slander, heck their police guys seem better equipped than parts of our military.
Oh right… I apologise. I’ll take myself outside, and give myself a damn good thrashing!
Visions of a Red car on a leafy lane in Torquay and a branch.
Haha indeed!
Well Poland was paying around 35million a pop for Blackhawks so not that far off what you would expect.
It’s a12 seater, so I’m not sure that counts as small. It’s used by the US Army (named Lakota) and Germany, to name 2 big users, as well as already being used for advanced helicopter training in the UK. I suspect Playmobil copied this and not the other way round… anybody know?!
Blackhawks are cheaper than this toy
No they are not…Poland purchased four Blackhawks for around 135 million pounds so six would have cost around £190 million…..
You are comparing the armed S-70i variant to the unarmed utility H-145.
Australia bought 40 UH-60M’s for 650 million, 16 million each, including a maintenance package.
I’ll say it again. The Blackhawk is cheaper than these toys.
Chris that order was 1.95 billion dollars for 40.
Yes that’s what Reuters says USD 1.96 billion, I don’t know where Chris got $650 million from.
$656 million was just a contract modification, total price was 1.96 billion for 40.
Wasn’t some of these parked up in storage somewhere? They were supposed to take over from the gazelle here in NI but were not deployed due to the ‘reduced’ security risk.
Oops done some checking they were 135s
I suppose it makes sense but where is the future medium helicopter? It’s been expected for years now. Mentioned in 2010 review.
Hopefully announced before the GE, otherwise assume Purdah gets in the way.
I’m doubtful. PM is too busy going after the measly amount sick people get and spending millions on a failing Rwanda policy.
In the words of Kevin bridges what do you mean you can’t work as you’re paralysed from the neck down. They’ll be a farmer looking for a scarecrow.
Vastly reduced numbers if any at all! SAS will most likely get the same as the abroad units which would be sensible but who know. 4 types replaced with 2 (maybe).
Republic of Cyprus have bought 6x H145’s too. I hope they have a significantly different paint job on them to allow distinct recognition. There’s a lot of sites of UK sites on the border with the North.
Very rare nowaday to hear the government is expanding anything related to the military.
Expand the number of troops, ships, submarines, transport plance, air defense systems and fighter jets please.
(I’m sure theres more to add to my list)
This does mean that the MOD will reduce the buy of the Puma Replacements and as there is hardly a Squadron’s worth flying (14 ?) they may even bin the idea in total. The SAS may get some of the same too to replace their tired helo’s, or is that being sensible again?
Are the Dauphins tired? Not sure how anyone could know that, their hours cannot be massive given their niche role.