The NH90 Sea Tiger helicopter for the German Navy going through pre-delivery trials that took place February to April, ahead of its entry into service in 2025. (Airbus)
Airbus has progressed the entry into German Navy (Deutsche Marine: DM) service of the NHIndustries (NHI) NH90 Sea Tiger, flying a mission system test campaign of the anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and anti-surface warfare (ASuW) helicopter out of its Marignane production facility in Southern France.
Announced ahead of the ILA Berlin Air Show running from 5 to 7 June, the company described as “faultless” the test campaign that had followed the Sea Tiger's maiden flight at Airbus Helicopter's Donauwörth production facility on 30 November 2023.
“On the path to entry into service in 2025, an important step has just been taken with an eight-week test campaign that took place from February to April,” Airbus Helicopters said.
According to Ingo Bayer, senior manager of the Sea Tiger programme, for this campaign the first production aircraft equipped with the full mission system that will be used by the DM was used. In addition to qualifying the Automatic Identification System (AIS) for shipping, most of the work focused on the use of Thales's Flash Sonics dipping sonar in combination with the deployment of active and passive acoustic buoys. “The use of underwater targets allowed us to test the correct operation of the detection equipment in credible conditions,” he added.
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