Airbus Helicopters has revealed its next generation rotorcraft concepts to address the NATO Next Generation Rotorcraft Capabilities (NGRC) study requirements.
"We want to ensure that Europe is in a position to propose a platform that will best fit our military partners’ needs in terms of affordability, operational efficiency and maximum availability for both the conventional helicopter and for the high speed rotorcraft. These two concepts are a basis to further exchange with our military partners on their vision and need for future military operations,” CEO of Airbus Helicopters, Bruno Even, stated.
Airbus' proposal to NATO, developed in collaboration with RTX businesses, Collins Aerospace and Raytheon, and MBDA, have included two concepts: a high-performance conventional helicopter alongside a novel high-speed compound concept.
“Airbus Helicopters is actively working on the future of its military range. On the one hand, we are preparing the evolution of our legacy range with a continuous improvement policy. With the Block 1 and 2 studies, we have a long-term NH90 evolution roadmap. Our dual product range, the H145M, the H160M, and the H225M, is setting new standards for military helicopters in terms of affordability, connectivity, and maintenance,” Even explained.
“On the other hand, we are working on the next generation of rotorcraft systems, leveraging modular multi-platform technologies such as connectivity, cybersecurity, crewed-uncrewed teaming, multi-domain collaborative combat, survivability and battle damage repair."
Modularity and simplicity are core tenets that have been put forth by the Airbus NGRC proposal. According to the company, the design philosophy aims to deliver platforms that are simple to manufacture, maintain, and upgrade, ensuring long-term affordability, due to its Modular Open System Architecture approach.
The two concepts will be highly connected and will share commonalities in terms of maintenance, training, weapons and systems.
In July 2024, the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) awarded a contract to Airbus Helicopters to lead a concept study in the frame of the NGRC project under which the participants combined efforts to work on the design, development, delivery and support of a medium multi-role helicopter.
Airbus’ advanced concept has used the company’s experience in military rotorcraft and high-speed flight, particularly from its compound configuration demonstrators, the X3 and Racer.
According to Airbus, the benefits of the added wings and propellers have been confirmed through flight evaluations by military pilots on Racer in the frame of the European Next Generation Rotorcraft Technologies program.