NORWAY SIGNS THE CONTRACT FOR 14 NH90 HELICOPTERS

In Oslo on 30 November 2001 Major General Ivar Gjetnes, Commander of the Royal Norwegian Air Force Material Command, and Mr. Philippe Stuckelberger, General Manager of NHIndustries, signed the purchase contract for 14 NH90 helicopters and for the option of additional 10 helicopters. After two year’s competition, this follows the NSHP Committee recommendation in favour of the NH90 as the common helicopter, announced on 13 September 2001.

The customised configuration of the 14 Norwegian NH90 helicopters (6 ASW and 8 Coast Guard), derived from the NAHEMA NFH version, features nationalised avionics, and dedicated equipment, such as a dual rescue winch, digital map generator, survival raft, additional fuel tanks, to be easily fitted to both the Coast Guard and ASW mission. The 10 helicopters in option will be dedicated to SAR mission.

All the Norwegian NH90 are equipped with the Rolls-Royce Turbomeca RRTM322-01/9 engine.

First NH90 CG helicopter will be delivered to the Norway in late 2005 and the remaining series will be completed in 2008.

This new contract with Norway increases the firm orders of the NH90 to 305 units, and the options to 72.

This concludes the NSHP procurement process with a remarkable European success reinforcing both the capability of Armed Forces cooperation (the NH90 will operate from 8 European Countries) and the economic benefit for national industries.

NHIndustries, together with its Partner Companies, is very pleased to thank the 5 NAHEMA participating Nations and the NSHP Countries for their strong professional effort during the development and the national configuration definition process which presents the NH90 as a fully developed, operational, and multipurpose system.