I put this to some senior Leonardo people at an event recently. The senior people were suitably non commital as you would expect from a listed company. The rest of their sales team were..... less inhibited.
Based on the more junior team members the plan is for:
- More composite to try and reduce the amount of corrosion issues
- More aligned maintenance schedules (like AH have done with the H175/ H160)
- More future proof/ cheaper/ in house avionics
- Strangely power was not mentioned, it's not really an underpowered aircraft at the moment to the best of my knowledge
- Unlikely an increase in MTOW, but possibly a little. If some of the aircraft can be made of composite, you do not need to go above 7T, the lighter EEW takes care of more payload anyway.
I assess it's still a little while away before it breaks cover, like AH's new H135.