Parts from Australia’s scrapped NH Industries (NHI) NH90 helicopters have begun arriving in Europe as the manufacturer continues to drive availability improvements for the global fleet.
Canberra in September 2023 pulled its fleet of MRH90 Taipans – the local designation for the troop transport helicopter (TTH) – from service as part of an accelerated retirement plan.
But rather than simply see the aircraft written off, NHI struck a deal with Australia to purchase around 4,000 components to feed its spare parts pool, part of a broader €500 million ($546 million) inventory investment by the joint venture and its parent companies Airbus Helicopters, Leonardo and GKN/Fokker.
Axel Aloccio, president of NHI and head of the NH90 programme at Airbus Helicopters, says the first “300 or so parts” have started to flow into its system “over the last three to four weeks”.
Aloccio, briefing journalists at Airbus Helicopters’ site in Marseille on 8 October, said NHI has purchased around 4,000 parts in total.
While he declines to specify the price agreed with Australia, he says the components are valued at roughly €250 million.
“We will reinject these into our support system, either by selling them to some nations… and the rest we will keep at NHI in our inventories.”
NHI intends that the components, alongside new parts purchased directly from suppliers, form part of a “standard exchange programme” – a joint spare parts pool – that will allow operators to speed repair and overhaul activity.
Aloccio expects that “most [customers] will sign up” to the new arrangement, with updated support contracts due to be signed off by year-end.
While some standard exchange activity is already under way “on a case-by-case basis” it is “not yet at an industrial level”, he says.
Parts availability is one of several initiatives implemented by NHI to increase fleet availability, a persistent criticism of many NH90 operators.
But Aloccio says that it is less focused on availability and more on rate of effort – “do our customers achieve their flight hour targets” – which better reflects different fleet sizes.
NHI has also focused on a handful of critical parts – around 60-70 components from about 25 suppliers – creating “very customised and very aggressive action plans” to increase output.
Production of the parts on its “priority item list” (PIL) rose by 15% in 2023, and Aloccio expects a similar increase this year.
“We believe we will be very close to the target by the end of this year. If that is not the case, we will continue, we will do an extra push in 2025 – but we will get there,” he says.
Suppliers include the NHI shareholders, he adds, who produce around 20% of the PIL total. “What we saw is there was a lack of understanding from everyone, including ourselves, on the speed at which we needed to deliver and to resupply those parts into the system.
“All of us, our vendors, but also including ourselves, were a bit undersized against what was expected from our customers.”
He points to the overhaul of tail rotor gearboxes by Airbus Helicopters, which had been running at a rate of 30-35 per year “not understanding that this was not enough”; throughput is now at about 70 units per year.
Maintenance tasks have also been simplified; the number of maintenance hours per flight hour has fallen by 20% from the 2021 benchmark, and Aloccio expects a future review to result in an additional saving of 10-15%.
In addition, NHI has worked with customers to increase the number of maintenance technicians available, either directly or through third-party contracts.
Aloccio says the combined initiatives are beginning to pay off: Sweden – which has made no secret of its intention to divest a part of its NH90 fleet – has seen flight hours rise by 60% over the last two years.
But whether that will persuade Stockholm to change course is unclear, not least that it has already ordered a dozen Sikorsky UH-60M Black Hawks as replacements for its NH90 TTH troop transports. It may also retain its naval NFH fleet.
“It is a topic still under discussion by government and at some point… in the Swedish parliament. So I cannot judge what their final decision will be,” says Aloccio.
“But what is sure is that when they released their recommendation two years ago to phase out the NH90s it was based on a situation and data from the past.”
Sweden’s dissatisfaction partly stemmed from a slow-running programme to retrofit NH90s delivered in an interim configuration to the latest standard.
That process is now accelerating, says Aloccio, with under 100 helicopters still to be modified, the majority of which are Italian aircraft to be handled by Leonardo.
Output is now at around 20 helicopters per year, up from the previous annual figure of 10-12, he adds. Airbus Helicopters’ retrofit backlog should be completed by late 2025 or early 2026, while Leonardo’s will follow around two years later.
To prevent a recurrence of the delays when the fleet undergoes the planned software release 3 update – currently in the development phase – NHI plans to invest €100 million in parts to ensure key components “are available on day one when we start the retrofits”.
More than 200 helicopters will be covered by the enhancement and Aloccio is hopeful that a contract can be agreed next year.
Meanwhile, NHI and its shareholders continue to work on future improvements for the NH90 to keep the platform relevant for another 50-60 years.
In the short-term, that sees the development of the Standard 2 variant being acquired by France for its special forces, the first example of which began flight tests earlier this year.
Further out, NHI and its customers have begun to discuss what technologies could form part of the future Block II standard. “The platform has huge potential for upgrade,” says Aloccio. “It is a young programme which is only at the beginning of its lifecycle.”
Enhancements could include a modular open system architecture, manned-unmanned teaming capabilities, additional weapons and improved survivability and connectivity, he says. A slight increase in payload of around 100kg (220lb) could also be incorporated.
Additionally, systems being matured through the European Next Generation Rotorcraft Technology project – led by Airbus Helicopters alongside Leonardo – could feed into the Block II upgrade that would arrive in the “2035-2040 window”.
Aloccio says full and partial retrofits for the Block II standard are being explored, alongside its adoption on new-build NH90s.
NHI continues to pursue fresh orders for the 11t-class helicopter, with discussions predominantly related to the NFH anti-submarine warfare variant.
He says there is “a lot of interest coming from the Middle East” for the variant – which is already operated in the region by Qatar – and elsewhere.
“It is keeping us very busy for sure. I hope this will materialise in the next 18 months with new orders and new customers joining the programme.”
Aloccio sees the potential for 50-100 new orders, including from existing customers Spain and the Netherlands, with the latter having recently expressed a requirement for three additional NFHs.
