The NH90 continues to generate all the wrong kind of press - once again the Norwegians are threatening to terminate the programme. When you consider that 6 aircraft are continuing to operate in a "preliminary" configuration, and the last aircraft is 14 years late on delivery! What a disaster and what a threat to Western defence credibility for anyone that made the mistake of ordering them.
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LOW TRUST: A helicopter of the type NH90. According to the Minister of Defense, Norway has little confidence in the producer. Photo: Paul Kleiven / NTB.
Minister of Defense: Norway is considering dropping the NH90 helicopters
Norway is considering terminating the contract with the NH90 helicopters, says Minister of Defense Odd Roger Enoksen (Sp). They should have been delivered in 2008, but one is still missing.
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PUBLISHED Wednesday, 09 February 2022 - 12:53 LAST UPDATED Wednesday 09 February 2022 - 13:22
Enoksen asks the Ministry of Defense to start work on looking at maritime helicopters for the Armed Forces all over again, writes Aftenposten .
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One possibility that is being considered is to terminate the contract for NH90.
The acquisition of the NH90 helicopters has long been scandal-ridden. Norway ordered 14 of the helicopters in 2001.
All of these should have been in operation in Norway in 2008, on board coastguard ships and navy frigates. 14 years later, one helicopter is still missing.
- We have now received 13 helicopters. But six of these are in a preliminary version. We hear from the Italian supplier that they may be upgraded in 2023, perhaps in 2024, says Enoksen.
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- But the fact is that we now have little confidence in the supplier NHI.
There has been a lot of trouble with the NH90 helicopters. In 2019, it became clear that they would be
more expensive to operate than first thought. Then the delivery was
further delayed. At the end of 2019
, the Coast Guard expressed strong concern about helicopter preparedness, as a result of the problems with NH-90.
Norway has also previously considered terminating the contract, including in 2008, but it is estimated that it will be about as expensive to keep the contract as to terminate it.
Since it has now been even more years without all the helicopters being delivered, and it is also not clear when this will happen, it should again be considered to terminate the contract, says Enoksen.
- Termination of the contract will be neither easy nor free of charge. But this is an expression of the end of patience.
In 2018, the Office of the Auditor-General concluded that the Armed Forces and taxpayers had spent NOK 8 billion on something that had not been delivered.