NH Industries (NHI) will later in 2025 begin a two-year study analysing options for a future Block 2 upgrade for its NH90 helicopter, making it “more multirole, with teaming and strike capability”, and providing increased survivability.
These enhancements will make the NH90 “ready for the 2040 battlefield” and “will see it continue flying until the 2070s”, says Thomas Gut, vice-president, head of the NH90 NAHEMO programme at Airbus Helicopters – part of the NHI joint venture alongside Leonardo Helicopters and GKN/Fokker.
Higher-power engines with lower fuel-burn to boost payload and range, improved sensors and electronic warfare capabilities are among the improvements under consideration, alongside the integration of a range of weapons, including long-range missiles, and guided and unguided rockets.
Gut says platform improvements will be targeted first “and then you can have new mission capabilities very easily”.
“Intensive discussions” on the “high-level requirements” for Block 2 – to enter service in the 2030s – have already taken place with NATO’s NAHEMA procurement agency and NH90 operators, says Gut.
NHI outlined the options to customers at a NH90 user conference last October.
Presenting detail of the proposals at Defence IQ’s International Military Helicopter 2025 conference on 26 February, Gut said a key area of focus is the helicopter’s avionics, particularly for the TTH troop transport variant, “which cannot survive until 2040”.
In contrast, the issue is less pressing for the naval NFH variant, which has benefited from improvements as new, updated models have come on stream.
Implementation of a modular open system architecture would allow quicker and easier future upgrades, he says, with NHI also contemplating a common mission system across the naval and troop transport variants.
More powerful versions of the current 2,500shp (1,860kW)-class GE Aerospace T700/CT7 and Safran Helicopter Engines RTM332 powerplants, rather than an all-new turboshaft, will also be sought, says Gut.
“At this point we want to see what kind of enhancement they can offer to us – we think it makes no sense to install a completely new engine.”
But with GE developing its 3,700shp T901 as a direct replacement for the T700, NHI “would not fully exclude” the integration of a new turboshaft. However, “it is crucial we have an engine that fits within the existing architecture”, he adds.
Gut says the exact power requirement is still to be defined but would be in line with plans to lift maximum take-off weight towards 11.5t. up from 11t presently. Payload will also increase, aided by a “weight reduction programme”.
An update of the NH90’s flight controls is also being considered, he says. “We have already a fly-by-wire system 2.0 in our thoughts,” he says, which will “significantly reduce” pilot workload.
Which weapons will be integrated will depend on customer demand, he says: “We have offered a range of everything we could think of. We have made a lot of studies and presented a lot of ideas.”
Engineering studies for “a new heavy stores carrier” have also been completed “and we already have these in our drawer”. Beyond door guns – and podded 20mm cannons used by one operator – armaments on the NH90 have been limited to torpedoes on the NFH, with MBDA Marte ER anti-ship missiles to follow as part of the Block 1 upgrade announced last June.
Similarly, “we also have ideas for air-to-air refuelling”, but NHI would need solid customer interest before it incurs the costs related to the development, integration and qualification of a probe. “Engineering solutions are the smallest problem,” Gut says.
A Block 2 NH90 will also be “collaborative combat enabled”, offering crewed-uncrewed teaming capabilities, including integration with “multi-taksing air-launched effects”.
Christian Naso, NHI managing director, says in the coming months it will begin an “architecture study” alongside NAHEMA “to assess the trade-off between the level of invasiveness of the modifications compared to the cost and performance [increase]”.
“We are not seeking a completely new blank-sheet helicopter – that is not the goal,” he says. Rather, the aim is to “leverage” technologies being developed through a European Defence Fund (EDF)-backed programme “and fit them onto the NH90”.
Airbus Helicopters and Leonardo Helicopters are jointly leading that EDF initiative – called European Next Generation Rotorcraft Technologies (ENGRT). Currently in its initial phase, a follow-on contract is due to be awarded in the second quarter.
“We have a great platform, so we don’t need to scrap it and start from a blank sheet. We want to improve it with new technology that will become available,” Naso says.
But “how far we go”, is “subject to a decision from our customers”, he adds, noting that the upgrade must be “smart and affordable”.
To help achieve that goal, the Block 2 enhancement is likely to be offered as a retrofit, as well as through remanufactured or new-build helicopters.
Naso says the architecture study will last for two years, ushering in a “de-risking period” to “start gathering information from ENGRT”, leading to the launch of Block 2 in the early 2030s.
