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Boeing joins Airbus for UK NMH requirement

Boeing is to be the training and services provider for Airbus Helicopters' New Medium Helicopter offering to the UK Ministry of Defence, responsible for aircrew, groundcrew, and maintenance training, should the H175M be selected. (Airbus)

Boeing is to be the training and services provider for Airbus Helicopters' New Medium Helicopter (NMH) offering to the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), it was announced on 6 March.

Boeing Defence UK will provide aircrew, ground crew, and maintenance training, if the H175M is selected to replace the Airbus Puma HC2 and three other rotorcraft in UK military service.

As noted by Lenny Brown, managing director of Airbus Helicopters UK and Steve Burnell, managing director of Boeing Defence UK, Boeing's longstanding support of both the Chinook and Apache platforms for the MoD will now be brought to bear in support of the H175M Task Force that was launched in July 2022.

News of the teaming arrangement came around three months after Airbus and Boeing were downselected in December 2022 to proceed to the second half of the NMH competition, along with Leonardo and Lockheed Martin. While Airbus was known to be offering the H175M; Leonardo, the AW149; and Lockheed Martin, the S-70M Black Hawk, Boeing did not declare an airframe type. Instead, it said it could offer a services, sustainment, and training solution for the selected airframe.

In declaring for the H175M Task Force, Boeing joins Babcock International, Martin-Baker, Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC), and Spirit AeroSystems in backing Airbus' bid to provide up to 44 medium-lift platforms to replace the Puma, Bell 212 and 412, and Airbus Dauphin for between GBP900 million (USD1.08 billion) and GBP1.2 billion (USD1.4 billion). If selected, the H175M would be built at Broughton, Wales.

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