PORTUGAL JOINS THE NH90 PROGRAMME

The Armament Directors of France, Germany, Italy, and The Netherlands and the State Secretary of Portugal signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at Le Bourget on June 21, 2001, to include Portugal as fifth European Nation in the NH90 Programme.

Portugal will purchase 10 NH90 helicopters for Tactical Transport missions and will become a member of NAHEMO (NATO Helicopter Management Organisation, comprising the Steering Committee and NAHEMA, the NATO Helicopter Management Agency), the government authority which controls the programme.

This was based on the go-ahead and the Parliamentary approval of the 5 Participating Nations.

The contract between NAHEMA and NHIndustries, signed also on 21 June 2001, covers the production of the 10 NH90s required by Portugal.

The target to maintain the costs within the estimate elaborated before the Design & Development phase achieved thanks to the close collaboration between NHIndustries, its industrial partners, NAHEMA, and the End Users by combining: a continuous design to costs analysis and a permanent control of the technical configuration despite the large variety of required mission to meet, now allows this new goal of the NH90 Programme. All this reinforcing the commercial approach which ensures the customer: world market competitive prices, guaranteed performance backed by stiff penalties, and deliveries according to operational needs.

The 10 TTH in order for Portugal increase the 1st NH90 production batch to 308 units. Italy orders 60 TTH (Tactical Transport Helicopter) for the Army, 46 NFH (NATO Frigate Helicopter) plus 10 TTH for the Navy; France will receive 27 NFH for their naval forces; Germany receives 50 TTH for the Army and 30 TTH for the Air Force, of which 23 are foreseen for Combat Search and Rescue missions following a dedicated further contracted development; The Netherlands will receive 20 NFH.

The 1st batch in both the TTH and the NFH versions includes 54 TTH as option for Germany - 30 for their Army and 24 for their Air Force - and 1 TTH as option for Italian Air Force. Deliveries will start on 2003 for the Tactical Transport version.

Production shares of the five countries will be 30.85% for France (Eurocopter), 31.6% for Italy (Agusta), 30.85 % for Germany (Eurocopter Deutschland), 5.5% for The Netherlands (Stork Fokker), and 1.2%for the Portugal.

NHIndustries is responsible for the programme management, marketing, sales, and after sales support of the NH90 helicopter.