Leonardo: NH90 Qatar contract now effective

Rome, 20 August 2018 – Leonardo announces that it has made effective the contract, signed on March 14, 2018, for the supply of 28 NH90 medium twin-engine multirole military helicopters to the Ministry of Defense of Qatar and has therefore booked the order in its backlog and received the advance payment relating to the contract. Leonardo acts as overall prime contractor with responsibility for the management of the entire programme valued at more than €3 billion to the NHI consortium.

Alessandro Profumo, Leonardo CEO, stated: “We are proud to have made this important contract effective. We continue to be fully focused on executing our Industrial Plan aimed at ensuring long-term sustainable growth for the Group, also strengthening our commercial approach”.

The Group Guidance for the full year 2018 is confirmed, as revised upwards on 30th of July in respect of higher order intake and FOCF to reflect the expected effectiveness of the NH90 Qatar contract, that had been only partially factored into Group Guidance, and the potential for certain export campaigns not to be full finalised by year-end

Leonardo acts as overall prime contractor with responsibility for the management of the entire programme which includes 16 NH90 TTH for land operations, 12 NH90 NFH for naval missions, a comprehensive support, maintenance training services package and associated infrastructure. The programme could be further extended in the future with the addition of 6 + 6 units in a mix of TTH and NFH variants. Leonardo will be also responsible for the final assembly and delivery of the 12 NH90 NFH helicopters from its Venice – Tessera facility in Northern Italy and an eight-year support and training services package for crews and maintenance technicians. Meanwhile Airbus will be responsible for the final assembly of the16 NH90 TTH aircraft. Deliveries are expected to start before June 2022 and to continue through to 2025. Leonardo will also supply, contribute to and integrate various equipment, avionics and sensors.

Leonardo is responsible for or contributes to the design, production and integration of a wide range of NH90 critical components and systems. These include the rear fuselage, main gearbox, hydraulic system, Automatic Flight Control System (AFCS), plant management system, NFH mission system, power plant integration and final assembly of TTH and NFH aircraft for various customers at its Venice – Tessera facility in Northern Italy. Leonardo also integrates additional dedicated systems, avionics and sensors such as the Laser Obstacle Avoidance Monitoring (LOAM) system, radar, digital map generator, sonar and naval mission console. Weapon systems Leonardo contributes to comprise pintle mounted gatling-type guns, torpedoes and air-to-surface missiles for Anti-Surface Warfare (ASuW) missions.

The largest military helicopter programme in Europe, the NH90 is the optimal choice for modern operations thanks to its fully composite airframe with a large cabin, its excellent power-to-weight ratio and its wide range of role equipment. It features a quadruplex fly-by-wire flight control system for reduced pilot workload and enhanced flight handling characteristics.

The NH90 is available in two main variants, one dedicated to naval operations, the NH90 NFH (NATO Frigate Helicopter) and the TTH (Tactical Transport Helicopter) for land based operations. As of today, over 350 helicopters have been delivered in NFH and TTH variants to customers in 13 nations. Aircraft in service have logged nearly 180,000 flight hours in a wide range of weather and environmental conditions, over land and sea. 543 NH90s have been ordered by customers worldwide to date.

The twin-engine, medium-size NH90 helicopter programme is managed by NHIndustries, which is owned by Leonardo, Airbus, and Fokker.