Airbus Helicopters chief welcomes speed boost for NGRC rotorcraft

European airframer’s boss believes company has right architecture for future capability.
Airbus Helicopters chief executive Matthieu Louvot has welcomed a revised set of outline performance requirements for a future NATO military rotorcraft, and believes the company has identified the right solution.

Managed by the NATO Support & Procurement Agency (NSPA) for current participants Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK, the Next Generation Rotorcraft Capability (NGRC) programme seeks to introduce a new fleet in the 2035-2040 timeframe.

Airbus Helicopters, Leonardo Helicopters and Sikorsky are each participating in an ongoing concept design phase, while Boeing recently opted against pursuing the opportunity.

Performance targets for future NGRC rotorcraft have recently been adjusted, including an increased speed objective believed to be in the region of 240kt (444km/h) – versus “optimally 220kt or more but not less than 180kt” previously.

“There is always a question about speed – we saw that minds are opening to a wider speed range in the latest specifications in the studies for NATO,” Louvot says.

“We think it is the right thing, because speed has advantages, but in the helicopter world it has a lot of drawbacks when you cross a certain threshold and when you change the architecture of the aircraft it means a lot of additional costs and complexity. In a budget-constrained environment this means you need to trade many other things to get that speed. We think that this trade-off is well understood by our customers.”

Speaking during the company’s MDays event near Marseille on 8 October, he said: “We want to accommodate various requests for speed, should speed be the thing. We have the Racer compound concept which we think is much more efficient, because you get a lot more speed but at the same time you don’t change the fundamental architecture of the aircraft. There is a lot of commonality, and you get excellent performance in manoeuvrability, low-speed and hover.”

Airbus Helicopters early this year showed two conceptual designs pitched at the NGRC need: an advanced conventional helicopter and a high-speed rotorcraft using technologies derived from its 240kt-capable Racer demonstrator.

Innovative Racer demonstrator has already achieved a maximum speed of 240kt. Source: Airbus Helicopters

“We think we have well captured in the various studies which have happened in the last two to three years what our customers want,” Louvot says. “They want connectivity and to be a node in the battlefield, a system that integrates and connects to data and absorbs it with a relatively small crew. They need autonomy – both as a safety feature, but it also is a mission-enabler. They need more lethality, and protection against different types of weapon systems. And they also want a strong reduction in the cost of operation and increased availability.

“All of this requires a lot of innovation, and we think it is where Europe should focus for the next two, three, four years, in order to be ready to make a fantastic new programme in the [20]30s, to be the successor of the current generation of helicopters.”

Referring to the company’s work to date, he states: “We think we have the right architecture… [with] much less [cost] than other concepts. We also want to make a very clear offer on all the innovative aspects – autonomy, reliability, affordability, connectivity, lethality, and cost of operations, where we think that can really change the game.”

He identifies reducing the cost of operation as “an interesting and very important technology challenge for us to make the next generation much easier and much less costly to maintain, and much easier to upgrade, with a software-defined architecture”.

“The complexity of maintenance is common to many helicopters today,” he notes. “It’s something where we think with technology we can get much better.”

Asked whether he expects Airbus to go it alone or work in partnership – as it does on the NH Industries (NHI) NH90 troop transport and maritime helicopter with consortium partners Leonardo Helicopters and GKN/Fokker – Louvot says: “I don’t rule out doing a joint programme with Leonardo.

“The partnership today with Leonardo on the NH90 works, NHI works, we have a very strong commitment of both companies to the success of the [NH90] platform, and we have developed together what I think is the best submarine-hunter you can find in the helicopter world.

“If Leonardo is willing to work with us, and if we can converge on the concept and the customer needs I’m very glad to do it again with them. If not, we will have an Airbus platform. Both options are possible.”

Leonardo’s interest in the NGRC requirement has focused on the use of its advanced tiltrotor technology.

Louvot notes, however, that any future programme should avoid the legacy of the NH90, where customisation has led to an excessive number of variants and added complexity in production and support.

Airbus and Leonardo currently work together on the NH90 programme, along with GKN/Fokker. Source: Airbus Helicopters

“If you want to get the economies of scale, you should not build one different version per European country,” he says. “We hope that the next-generation rotorcraft will avoid that, and lessons will have been taken from the past and that we will converge on a very similar helicopter.

“A much more common, shared platform among customers will be a great benefit to the efficiency of the programme.”

The remaining NGRC bidders are due to submit proposals in August 2027, with the NSPA to report the findings of its evaluation to the programme nations early the following year.

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