Leonardo lays foundations for AW149 New Medium Helicopter bid

Leonardo has laid the foundations for its New Medium Helicopter (NMH) bid to the UK, identifying potential roles and configurations for its AW149 ahead of the formal launch of a competition by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

The Common Platform Demonstrator is put through its paces for Janes and other defence media ahead of Leonardo formally bidding its AW149 for the UK's New Medium Helicopter requirement. (Janes/Gareth jennings)

Senior programme leaders and test pilots at the Leonardo Helicopters UK facility in Yeovil spoke about the ongoing preparatory work that is geared towards securing the much anticipated requirement to replace the Westland-Aerospatiale SA 330E Puma HC2 and three other helicopter types in the 2025 timeframe.

“The [NMH] competition is going to have to start sooner rather than later. While we wait, we have looked at the roles of those aircraft flying today [that are to be replaced], and we have taken a view as to how those roles might develop into the future,” Mike Morrisroe, head of UK Campaigns at Leonardo Helicopters UK said on 28 May. “What that allows us to do is to develop configurations, so for each of those roles we have developed configurations for the AW149. We have got quite a detailed understanding of what the cost of these configurations is, and what the maintenance burden looks like. We have developed mission scenarios, and we have done performance analyses to compare what the MoD has today with what it might want in future. So, for us at the moment, everything we are seeing is confirming that the AW149 is a really, really good fit for the roles that the aircraft [being replaced] have today, and maybe what they might want to do in the future.”