Shortlisted bidders for the UK’s New Medium Helicopter (NMH) requirement will have to wait until the New Year for the next stage of the tender process after yet another schedule slip to the long-running procurement. Three companies – Airbus Helicopters, Leonardo Helicopters and Sikorsky – were notified in the autumn of 2022 that they had been cleared for the next stage of the NMH bid process, the release of the so-called Invitation to Negotiate (ITN).
The release of the ITN, detailing the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD’s) exact requirements for the acquisition, was initially scheduled for September 2022. That was then pushed into the first quarter of this year, then later in the first half, before being delayed again until late 2023.However, that deadline has now slipped further; publication of the ITN is now not expected before late January or early February 2024, according to multiple sources familiar with the MoD’s schedule.
https://www.flightglobal.com/helicop...156152.article