NATO lifts top speed for next-gen rotorcraft while Boeing bows out of contest

NSPA provides more detail on requirements for multi-national NGRC programme following publication of request for proposals in July.
A NATO-led effort to develop a future military rotorcraft will see three bidders fight it out for a potential contract after Boeing chose not to compete.

Meanwhile, the NATO Support & Procurement Agency (NSPA), which is managing the project on behalf of six alliance members, has provided more detail of the platform’s requirements, including an increased speed objective.

The US airframer was selected last year as a pre-qualified bidder for the concept design phase of the Next Generation Rotorcraft Capability (NGRC) programme, alongside Airbus Helicopters, Leonardo Helicopters and Sikorsky.

However, it informed the NSPA by an 11 September deadline that it would not be responding to a request for proposals (RFP) issued in July.

Unlike the other three manufacturers, Boeing had not participated in the NGRC’s concept study phase which concluded in late 2025 with the submission of five rotorcraft concepts.

Despite the US firm ending its interest, Cyril Heckel, NGRC programme manager, says he is pleased that the other companies intend to stay the course.

“I wanted to have at least one bidder. Now that we have three, we will keep a very solid competitive environment, which is great.”

Running to some 800 pages, the RFP document specifies the exact requirements sought for the NGRC, which is targeted for service entry between 2035 and 2040.

Although Heckel declines to detail the requirements, citing the confidential nature of the programme, he says they are “derived from the attributes” released earlier in the process.

Rather than being overly prescriptive, each requirement has a “threshold and an objective”, he says: “This is the space we are creating for them [the bidders] to find the perfect balance.”

Although the threshold is the mandatory figure, bidders will score more in the evaluation the closer they are to the high-level objective.

Nonetheless, managing the competing demands of payload, range and speed will be a challenge, he notes.

When the required attributes were revealed in 2021, speed was listed as “optimally 220kt [407km/h] or more but not less than 180kt”.

But Heckel says these figures have been “relaxed slightly” in the RFP by around 10% in either direction. That would put the upper figure at around 240kt and the threshold in the region of 160kt.

Similarly, while the attributes document specified a per-unit fly-away cost of no more than €35 million ($39 miilion), Heckel concedes this has also risen roughly in line with inflation since 2021.

And while the attributes listed a required cost per flight hour of €5,000-10,000, the RFP has slightly looser language and the response will not be scored: “We ask the bidders to provide us with an estimate but no commitment yet,” says Heckel, describing it as “too early” in the process for a precise figure.

Maximum take-off weight, previously listed as up to 17t, is also “a little bit less, but not that far different” with that upper limit still largely governed by ship-based deck-landing weights. A common platform is still foreseen for both land and maritime missions.

However, Heckel stresses that the programme’s focus is more on meeting the operational requirements set by its sponsor nations.

“For me, the emphasis of our RFP is more on mission scenarios – we have defined this from maritime, land and the joint environment – and this is what is core.

“Industry will have to demonstrate their concept designs are able to deliver operationally speaking.”

Best-value approach

For the NGRC, the NSPA is running what it calls a ‘best value’ competition which will see each bid scored against a range of criteria.

Should that bid reach a predetermined qualification threshold it will be presented to the nations as an option “so potentially we could have more than one winner”.

And with each bidder able to submit up to two designs, it creates a potential scenario where the NGRC nations end up with six options to choose from.

Heckel admits this is possible, albeit “the probability is low”.

“It looks easy, but the qualification threshold is 80%, which is quite high and demanding.

“And when you want to give more emphasis to one key performance parameter, maybe it will damage a little bit some of the others.”

In the previous phase, Airbus Helicopters and Sikorsky each delivered two concepts – high-speed and conventional rotorcraft – while Leonardo Helicopters came up with a single tiltrotor-based design.

Airbus Helicopters based its high-speed concept on technologies derived from its Racer demonstrator, while Sikorsky leveraged its X2 co-axial-compound design.

Heckel thinks the ‘best value’ approach will give the NGRC nations – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK – a better way of selecting the right option for their needs, even if this could lead to the development of multiple new rotorcraft.

Bidders have until August 2027 to submit their proposals, with the NSPA expecting to conclude its evaluation by the end of that year, reporting its findings to the nations in early 2028.

While the bids should remain valid through to the end of 2029 “I am explaining to the nations that they should keep the momentum and make a fast decision.”

Part of the assessment process will include modelling and simulation of the candidate aircraft; the NSPA is currently developing the simulation environment, says Heckel.

“It will be the first time we use it in an evaluation scheme,” he says. “But it will be a game-changer and really useful for the nations to decide the next steps.”

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