Norway has announced the termination of its contract with NH Industries and plans to return the 13 NH90 helicopters it has so far received in return for a full refund of the NOK5 billion ($500 million) invested in their acquisition. The Ministry of Defense announced the axing of the contract on its website on June 10, noting that the Norwegian Defense Materiel Agency (NDMA or Forsvarsmateriell) had informed NH Industries of the decision, including the return of the helicopters and all attendant spare parts.
Norge leverer tilbake NH90-helikopteret:
– Det er en alvorlig avgjørelse, men uansett hvor mange timer personellet jobber, og uansett hvor mange deler vi bestiller, så vil ikke NH90 kunne møte Forsvarets behov, sier @Bjornarildgram. https://t.co/pBu3qlvbzP
— Forsvarsdepartement (@Forsvarsdep) June 10, 2022
Frustration with the program steadily mounted as the delivery schedule for the 14 helicopters continued to slip further and further from the original completion target of 2008. The final Norwegian unit was then to be delivered this year, but instead got pushed out to 2024.
On top of the overshot delivery timeframe, only eight of the units delivered arrived in final configuration. The platforms themselves proved unreliable, with the failure rate per flight hour for the eight units in final configuration 40 times too high.
Maintenance issues also presented a major challenge, with Norway oftentimes only having one unit – sometimes none – available for service. Some mission-specific components, such as the crucial anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capability, have become obsolete in the 20 years since Norway placed its order in 2001. According to the head of the NDMA, Gro Jaere, NH Industries has been unable to find a suitable replacement for the ASW suite.
BREAKING: Norway has terminated its contract for the NH90, and will return all helicopters while demanding full refund pic.twitter.com/ejd48j94hr
— Endre Lunde (@endrelunde) June 10, 2022
NH Industries has rebutted Norway’s claims, stating that the contract termination is “legally groundless,” that “NH Industries was not offered the possibility to discuss the latest proposal made to improve the availability of the NH90 in Norway and to address the specific Norwegian requirements,” and that Norway’s 14th and final NH90 helicopter is now “ready for acceptance.”
But Norway’s long-standing dissatisfaction with the program has boiled over and the Ministry of Defense is eager to turn the page on a project initially begun in 1998 along with Nordic partners Denmark, Finland and Sweden under the Nordic Standard Helicopter Program (NSHP). That project aimed to acquire a single helicopter platform to meet a variety of roles for each country’s military. In the end, only Denmark opted against the NH90.
Norway had hoped for initial delivery in 2005, but that timeline slipped and slipped, and Norwegian frustration with the program began to grow. It was not until November 30, 2011 that the first Norwegian NH90 was handed over at AgustaWestland’s Vergiate facility in Italy. (AgustaWestland is now Leonardo.) Meanwhile, the first two final-configuration models took until 2018 to arrive.
By February 2022, the MoD had tasked the armed forces, the NDMA, and the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment with undertaking a comprehensive review of the country’s maritime helicopter capabilities. The review noted that even substantial follow-on financial investment in the NH90 fleet would not raise its performance and availability rates to an acceptable standard to meet Norwegian requirements.
With operational use of the NH90 terminated, the MoD must now begin the process of finding a new maritime helicopter capability. A logical off-the-shelf solution would be the MH-60 Seahawk from Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky.
Dan Darling is Forecast International’s director of military and defense markets. In this role, Dan oversees a team of analysts tasked with covering everything from budgeting to weapons systems to defense electronics and military aerospace. Additionally, for over 17 years Dan has, at various times, authored the International Military Markets reports for Europe, Eurasia, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region.
Dan's work has been cited in Defense News, Real Clear Defense, Asian Military Review, Al Jazeera, and Financial Express, among others, and he has also contributed commentary to The Diplomat, The National Interest and World Politics Review. He has been quoted in Arabian Business, the Financial Times, Flight International, The New York Times, Bloomberg and National Defense Magazine.
In addition, Dan has made guest appearances on the online radio show Midrats and on The Media Line, as well as The Red Line Podcast, plus media appearances on France 24 and World Is One News (WION).
