NATO procurement officials driving work on a next-generation battlefield rotorcraft have hailed the project’s first “tangible” steps – the award of an initial pair of study contracts – marking the start of a two-year process that will see three different Next Generation Rotorcraft Capability (NGRC) concepts delivered.
Backed a group of six alliance members, the NGRC initiative is designed to deliver a clean-sheet medium or heavy platform for service entry before 2040.
The programme was effectively kicked off by the signature of a memorandum of understanding between the nations – France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK – in June 2022, with that agreement bolstered by the establishment of a programme office run by the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) in November that year.
“NGRC is defined as a high-visibility programme for the NSPA, which is currently establishing and developing at pace its acquisition activities,” officials say. “Such an acquisition capability represents a new opportunity for NATO members to manage effectively and professionally their acquisitions and to reach ambitious national and alliance objectives.”
On 5 December, the NSPA selected GE Aerospace to carry out a six-month study into novel propulsion concepts for the future rotorcraft. That was followed by the award of a €2 million ($2.2 million) contract to analyse options for the NGRC’s modular open systems architecture.
“Things are progressing well. The fact that we are in the capability towards the first study makes things more tangible,” says NGRC programme manager Cyril Heckel.
He points to the “high expectations” for the programme from NATO, the NGRC member nations, and from industry, adding: “There is a big appetite that has built up over the last two years on the industry side to initiate the NGRC activities.”
Critically, the initial pair of studies will inform further concept design activities that will focus on the whole aircraft.
Heckel is hopeful that the NSPA can release a request for proposals for that work by the end of January 2024, leading to the award of three €5 million contracts by late July.
Each industrial partner is expected to focus on a particular rotorcraft architecture – for example a helicopter, compound or tiltrotor design – using an initial set of attributes for the NGRC to guide the process. These studies will result in a trio of concepts being presented by the end of 2025.
Heckel feels that the enthusiasm shown by industry to the first tenders augers well for the next stage of the project: “There is a real partnership between ourselves and industry to deliver the best results.”
In the meantime, the six NGRC nations – who should finally be joined by Canada in January – continue to define a concept of operations for the new rotorcraft, a process that will be further refined by the industry-led studies, says Heckel.
In addition, discussions continue on how to progress the programme beyond the concept stage’s end in 2025, with the setting of firm requirements key to that process.
“We plan to discuss this again in January to see how we want to shape the future and we expect to have some official decisions by the spring of 2024,” says Heckel.
“You need to have a set of requirements before you decide on the best solution.”
Attributes released in May 2021 call for a 10-17t rotorcraft that can accommodate 12-16 fully equipped troops, has an unrefuelled range of 900nm (1,650km) and a spectrum of cruise speeds: “optimally” this would be 220kt (408km/h) or above, but must be “not less than 180kt”.
Although Heckel expects further interest in the NGRC to materialise as work progresses, there are unlikely to be any further additions in the short term.
“I don’t anticipate any new members before the end of 2025,” he says. “As of today, there are no official requests to join the initiative. But we remain open to possibilities.”
At present, the NGRC programme “remains in line” with the stated aim of fielding a new rotorcraft before 2040, but additional clarity on the schedule should be provided by next year’s concept studies, he adds.
“They should let us know more or less if the before 2040 target is realistic. The master schedule will be something we want to test and get some information on what is realistic and what is not.”
