The Nh-90 has two engine types available, the GE T700 and the RR/TM RTM something something, what engine is being used by the Northern Lights Kingdoms?

Norway , Sweden and Finland run the RTM322 in their NH-90's and Denmark run it in there EH101's. Swedish UH-60M and Danish MH-60R use the GE T700-701D

I'll bite at this. The biggest bugbear to Yeovil products is the tortuous and arcane MoD procurement process which adds costs, complexity and completely spurious requirements. It then, has a culture of revisiting all decisions every two years and quite often changing the design. Then, the UK operator takes delight in looking across the pond and believing they can do no wrong.

When is someone, or some entitiy either within the Military or Government going to stand up and demand accountability and a resolution to the inability of this platform to mee the elementary goals of Operational readiness, reliability and cost? This product has produced a greater threat to defensive capabilities than any other helicopter in history.

Even more remarkable is the fact that Customers keep ordering them, despite knowing that this is the greatest hangar Queen of all time. Quite remarkable. https://www.newcastleherald.com.au/s...udget/?cs=9397

Bug smashing civilian plank driver here.
Got up close and personal with the MRH90 at ADFA open day a year or two ago.
It looked like a real piece of Gucci gear as they say in the army.
Very flash - lots of composite - nice EFIS screens.
And admittedly with absolutely no expertise whatsoever - my general impression was that a bunch of soldiers and pilots would probably very rapidly break it.
If it didn't break itself.
Sort of like a high end European car - looks great, but you just know the electrics are going to sh!t themselves when you least need them to.
Opposite it sat a Blackhawk.
Old, beaten up - chipped paint inside, steam gauges, and built like the proverbial - but still flying strong.
Just sayin...

And yet the RNZAF NH-90's just seem to keep on trucking. Even into an active volcano this week to drop in a team to recover bodies.

Makes you wonder what the RNZAF is doing different. Perhaps they just know how to make things work. Like their Seasprites. Been in service now for 20 odd years and the Aussies gave up on ever getting them into service.

Look a bit deeper, the NZ Defence Minister called them "Unreliable Money Guzzlers" , and said in the past NZ bought the wrong helicopter but are stuck with it for the next 20+ years, the previous Govt's defence minister questioned the on going costs of the NH-90 were far above projected costs, yes the Kiwi's are stuck with a POS like the Aussies.

The ADF know they are stuck with a Lemon to the extent the reports on it in the list of "projects of concern" have had restricted security classification put on them so they can't be released to the press, the Army never wanted the MRH , they already had new syllabuses already written up for pilot upgrade training and technician ground schools for the UH-60M when the Govt chose the MRH , wasting all the time and effort already put in to what was believed by every one in the ADF was the obvious choice, the UH-60M.
In the CT role the MRH can't do what a Black Hawk can to the extent the Army are planning on the future light CT helo will take a lot of the roles currently done by the Black Hawk but can't be done by the MRH.

Get rid of the frikkin' Taipan and buy the V-280, Australia.
NZ - you should do the same too - great for all those long-range SAR missions.
Composites in the right places - but looks like it has the soul of a Blackhawk.
Hitting all it's development targets and goes like a cut cat too.
Wishful thinking...

Is that apart from having to replace all the carbon fibre floors as the soldiers rifles were wearing holes through as they were having to transport with dangerous end on the floor?

Even in my days on Hueys, you ALWAYS had grunts put the pointy end down. I'd rather a bullet go through the fuel tank than the rotor system. And from the Huey days.... If you didn't have load spreaders on the floor, guess what. Grunts would wreck the floor with stones stuck in their boots and from the pointy ends of their rifles. Delams and punctures in the honeycomb and patching or replacing floor panels. Don't think that this is a carbon fibre problem. This is a floor protection problem. Solved in the Hueys with sheets of plywood with holes drilled to line up with seat mounts etc.

The politicians who complain about these machines are the same people who are surprised that a twin engined fly by wire helicopter is more expensive than a UH-1 to operate. (Stuff Apr 21 2017). Now there's a surprise.

So they went from mechanical flight controls with no autopilot and all metal structure, to fly by wire with 4 axis advanced auto pilot, composite structure and a whole heap of other technological advances and they think there won't be any issues. The RNZAF didn't even teach their Aircraft Tech's about composite repairs. That's because it was the Wood Worker trade who did all the composite work. So it's no wonder that a 40+ year leap in technology almost overnight has caught them napping.

Apart from spares issues, how is the dispatch rate now? Spares are another issue entirely and if you have a tight contract, you can get compensation for a lack of spares availability.

BlackHawk9, seems like you are having the proverbial case of sour grapes, go ahead and have some together with the Bell supporters.
"The Army already had syllabuses written up"? whose idea was it, someone who promised SuckHorsky that they would buy their museum pieces?

And Tartare, stick to what you know, apparently helicopters are not in that list.

Na mate, I was out well before they got the Airpuss ****boxes, I was happy on Iroquois, Chinooks, Black Hawks and Kiowa's, and at my age have enough licences that I never have to touch an Airpuss again quite happy on Sikorsky's and Bell's, the Army was honestly sure they were getting Mike models I think the most surprised was Chief Army , pure political decision , I believe it was John Anderson deputy PM and the Nat leader and Warren Truss who pushed for the MRH as it would be build here ie Australian Jobs , while the UH-60M's would come direct from the US like the MH-60R's did and that was the deciding factor to the pollies, didn't mater what the ADF wanted.
And the info I get ain't from troops or Junior offices , look at my age my mates still in are my age or a bit younger with equivalent rank.
Much more fun now to sit on the side and throw the occasional grenade .

perhaps already picked up in the other media by those who might be interested:

In Dutch (but Google is your friend)

NH90 €15.000 more expensive per hour than F16


In short: by deploying the NH90 to Mali there where not enough NH90’s left for the pilots to stay current and Special Forces could also not train.

Belgium NH90 TTH basically grounded and phased out

I thought this was interesting. They sent an ARH Tiger attack helicopter on a SAR mission, even though they had a MRH90 on board the same ship that launched the Tiger? Interesting choice in SAR helicopter! Was the MRH90 down for maintenance, I wonder?

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...pacific-island

500 Fan.

Or Tiger with thermal sights and high resolution targeting optics might have been a smarter choice to supplement the Mk1 eyeball.

...and if you don't like the look of the survivors, one flash and they're ash...

Hadn't been on in awhile and surprised the news wasn't on here, "The Royal Australian Navy’s 808SQN based at HMAS Albatross near Nowra will soon replace its Airbus MRH 90 helicopters with a new utility helicopter." ,
Looks like either more MH-60R's with quick fit interiors or MH-60S's.
MRH's will be transferred to the Army, But Army is looking at possible MRH replacement instead of midlife upgrade.

https://www.brusselstimes.com/all-ne...lf-over-costs/
https://www.brusselstimes.com/wp-con...019/05/444.png

• Defence ministry cuts helicopter flights in half over costs

Sunday, 28 June 2020

https://www.brusselstimes.com/wp-con...Industries.jpg
The NH-90 TTH used by the Belgian services. © AirbusThe defence ministry has ordered the number of flights by four transport helicopters to be cut in half because the aircraft are too expensive to maintain, the VRT reports.

The four NH-90 helicopters in the TTH or tactical troop helicopter version were bought by the government five years ago for €30 million each. The helicopter is approved by NATO, and constructed by the NHIndustries partnership made up of Airbus Helicopters, Leonardo Helicopters and Fokker Aerostructures.
However the defence ministry under Philippe Goffin (MR) has found that one hour of flight of the NH-90 costs no less than €12,000. And the aircraft break down so often the services do not have enough personnel to keep them flight-worthy.The hourly cost is more than double the €5,000 an hour it cost to run the NH-90’s predecessor, the Sea King. Belgium’s last three Sea Kings were decommissioned in 2019 after 40 years of service.

The ministry has now decided to cut the number of hours the helicopters are in the air from the previous target of 1,000 hours to 600. It will also commission a study to look at what might be done with the helicopters to obtain the optimum value for the cost. One option, the VRT reports, would be to get rid of them altogether.

The cut in hours does not, however, affect the four NH-90s in service with the navy, which are an adapted version of the transport aircraft. Those helicopters are used for air-sea rescue operations from the base at Koksijde, and will continue to operate as before.
The problems with the NH-90s are not new. In 2018 three of the four air-sea rescue craft had to be returned to NHIndustries for repairs to the radar systems, leaving only one in service. When that one also had to be grounded for servicing, Belgium’s neighbours temporarily had to step in to ensure a rescue service in Belgian waters.Alan Hope

Copyright © 2019 The Brussels Times. All Rights Reserved.

France signs up for NH90 TTH Special Forces and Spanish AIr Force receives First
 

Cannot be all that bad ...As it happens France have signed up for NH90TTh Special Forces to be delivered in 2025 timeline...

https://www.airbus.com/newsroom/pres...al-forces.html
Anyhow I know it’s been in country and flying around for. While but officially Spanish Air Force have taken delivery of it’s First NH90 replacing the AS332M Super Puma at Cuatro Vientos.



https://www.airbus.com/newsroom/pres...-missions.html





https://www.arrse.co.uk/community/at...b66805cce29b5a

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....f52c137a6.jpeg







cheers

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/sto...r-flaw/OCTOBER 28 2020 - 12:00AM

'The door isn't wide enough': Defence heads admit the MRH-90 helicopter fleet has a major flaw

• https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transf..._h37_fcrop.jpg

  Sarah Basford Canales

Federal Politics https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transf..._h678_fmax.jpg An Australian Army MRH-90 Taipan helicopter. Picture: Department of DefenceSenior military and defence department figures have confirmed a major design flaw with a Howard-era fleet of helicopters totalling nearly $3.8 billion has limited its operational capability even after attempted fixes.

Chief of Army Lieutenant General Richard Burr appeared before a Senate estimates committee on Tuesday morning and admitted the 47-strong fleet of MRH-90 Taipan helicopters suffered from a door flaw that limited its suitability for certain operations.

Upon questioning by Labor Senator Tim Ayres, General Burr confirmed the helicopter's design flaw meant that simultaneous suppression fire from a side mount gun while troops were rappelling was not possible.

General Burr said there had been "tactical workarounds" for mitigating the limitation but the Airbus-manufactured fleet would need to undergo a third round of adjustments to rectify the problem.

The workaround requires a second supporting helicopter to perform suppressive fire while the first helicopter allows its troops to rappel.

The committee heard Defence had initially replaced the original gun mount with a second one but it could not fit the preferred weapon, a minigun, or allow firing while troops rappelling. A third adjustment has been procured by Airbus Australia at the tune of $21.9 million.

First assistant secretary Shane Fairweather later confirmed it was the size of the door that was root of the problem.

"It's an issue of the width of the door," Mr Fairweather said.

"The door isn't wide enough to be able to exit safely while firing is taking place."

The third gun mount would minimise the time at which the firing couldn't take place but still wouldn't allow for simultaneous firing and rappelling. Mr Fairweather added it was "physically a limit of the door width" with the MRH-90 fleet.

The committee separately heard a tail rotor fault, which required the MRH-90 fleet to remain grounded for some of last year while it was modified, was the reason the fleet had only completed half of its expected flying hours.

Mr Fairweather explained it was an issue that affected a number of other nations as well.

READ MORE:

• HMAS Albatross MRH-90 helicopters grounded
• How a landing light from a Defence MRH-90 Taipan helicopter sparked the Orroral Valley fire

The fleet, which cost $3.77 billion before sustainment costs are added, is scheduled to achieve its final operational capability by December 2021 with Navy using six MRH-90 helicopters but suffering a separate issue with its cargo hooks it is "very close" to resolving.

Defence minister Linda Reynolds said she and the Minister for Defence Industry Melissa Price had undertaken talks with Airbus in order to find a solution to the chopper's issues.

"I'm very, very aware of the issues that have plagued that part of this capability, which is why Melissa Price and I have met more than once with Airbus and with their CEO in relation to remediation of this project," Minister Reynolds said.

"We continue to monitor the project, very carefully with Airbus and with Defence."

Chief of Defence General Angus Campbell rushed to the defence of the MRH-90 fleet, describing it as "extraordinarily advanced".

"The MRH 90 is an extraordinarily advanced helicopter and it does do things that no other helicopter on the planet can do," General Campbell said.

"There is no perfect helicopter, there's no perfect machine or person and it is a matter of understanding how to fly that helicopter.

"You're quite right, there is an issue with the door guns. We know it. We're working on it."

Norwegian concerns
 

Norwegian Coast Guard have concerns already so they are looking at leasing out a/c to fill in the shortfall.

https://www.flightglobal.com/helicop...SJs-H-z_oiDo6w

What are these things? Rust?

https://forsvaretsforum.no/forsvarss...or-nh90/193785

I just did a couple of quick calculations. Roughly $61.5M USD EACH. Original deliveries scheduled for 2005-2008 were years behind schedule, and now the annual fleet operational utilization plan has dropped from 5000 hours to 2100, and they are planning on leasing additional (Non NH-90) assets to make up the shortfall.

Does any other helicopter have such a continued poor performance record, and yet gets bought by the dozen by militaries (Politicians) all over the World? It is an astonishing demonstration of failure, and a major threat to the defence capabilities of any country engaged in their acquisition.

Has halved the level of ambition for NH90

- NH90 not delivered in accordance with the objective neither on flight hours nor accessibility for the coast guard and frigates, says Chief of Defense Eirik Kristoffersen.

[email protected][email protected]
PUBLISHED Wednesday 14 April 2021 - 06:55 LAST UPDATED Wednesday 14 April 2021 - 08:48On Tuesday 13 April, General Eirik Kristofferen presented the Armed Forces 'annual report for 2020. It shows that the Armed Forces' operational capability increased somewhat during last year, including the phasing in of new materiel.

Tip us:

Do you have tips or suggestions for this or other issues? Send us an e-mail at: [email protected] or contact one of the journalists directly .

But the challenges associated with the NH90 helicopters continue, according to the Chief of Defense.

- This is the last annual report in a long-term plan period. If we look over the last four years, NH90 has not delivered in accordance with the objective, neither in flight hours nor availability for coastguards and frigates, Kristoffersen says to the Armed Forces forum.

Still lower goals

The Armed Forces' operational needs were over 5,000 flight hours with NH90.
The ambition level is now at 2100 hours.

- Now we are not even there, says the Chief of Defense and points out that the Armed Forces is not on target with flight time even with an ever lower level of ambition.

- It is serious and a challenge we must continue to work on, says Kristoffersen after the presentation of the annual report.
https://image.forsvaretsforum.no/193...706&height=403ANNUAL REPORT: Chief of Defense Eirik Kristoffersen and Minister of Defense Frank Bakke-Jensen during the presentation of the annual report. Photo: Torbjørn Kjosvold / The Armed Forces

Helicopter rental

Also read:https://image.forsvaretsforum.no/147...353&height=202

The government will lease helicopters to the Armed Forces

NH90 does not fly enough and the factories struggle to deliver both helicopters and spare parts.
Kristoffersen points out that NH90 is an important part of the anti-submarine capacity of the frigates.

- It is serious that we do not yet have operational NH90 on board the frigates - it also means that the frigates are not fully operational either. It was due to the anti-submarine capacity that we went to procure such an advanced helicopter as the NH90, says Kristoffersen.

The Chief of Defense will therefore prioritize getting this in place first. With regard to the Coast Guard, the Armed Forces is looking at other solutions, including the use of drones and the hiring of helicopters.

- We will investigate whether there are alternatives. We are a nation with great expertise in, among other things, search and rescue. Then we will see if some of the tasks to be performed by NH90 can be done by other capacities, says Minister of Defense Frank Bakke-Jensen.

Delays

One of the reasons why they are investigating alternatives to NH90 is due to delays and reduced availability of spare parts due to Covid-19.

- We must look at alternative solutions for the Coast Guard, such as hiring civilian helicopters. The Minister of Defense and I completely agree, says Eirik Kristoffersen.

- How fast should it get in place?

- The challenge now is that the Coast Guard spends so much time integrating NH90 that it spends some of the sailing time in open waters. Therefore, this solution should preferably be in place already.

Read also: The pandemic has cost the Armed Forces 348 million

- Do you have any faith that you will be able to reach an ambition level (with flight time) that is good enough with NH90 or do you have to look for other permanent solutions?

- I still believe that the NH90 can fly. I know NH90 from the Finnish special forces that have used them. It is a very good helicopter when it works. There are complex reasons why we have not reached the number of flight hours with NH90, but that does not mean that I have lost faith in it.

- Must find an answer

Minister of Defense Frank Bakke-Jensen says that the NH90 project is progressing slowly, but that he has not lost faith in the project either.

According to Forsvarsmateriell, the acquisition of 14 NH90s has a cost framework of NOK 7.2 billion. And the helicopters were scheduled to be delivered between 2005-08.

- The need for more flight time is here now. How and how fast are you going to find solutions to close those gaps in terms of flight time?

- I do not want to speculate on how long it will take. There are questions the report will find answers to, and I think it will be possible to find good answers to such questions, says Bakke-Jensen.

All the years of hard won combat experience with the D and H model Hueys in Vietnam were all for nought, unimpeded access to the cabin for the troops and the gunners having unimpeded ability to lay down fire. Trouble was the personnel in Oz with the experience were not retained by the services.

So who is asking for their money back?

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....6f5df5bca1.jpg
German Navy NH90

Looks like the one or the other is actually flying
ETMN on the 21stt April 2021 ;-)

Have they done a hot insertion (apart from Chinook) since Vietnam? How have the French and German achieved real hot insertions and extractions, land on and rappelling, with the same aircraft?

You can ask the same about Tiger... why are the French, Germans and Spanish able to operate their tigers with succes in various combat zones for more than a decade! Both from land and ships and the Australians seem not to be able...

You must be reading from the Australian playbook, which promised even more for less! There is always no better strategy than blaming your Customers for your own failures, it's always been a winning solution for this manufacturer.

https://www.australiandefence.com.au...nt-competition

The Germans appear to differ from your understanding of events for BOTH the NH90 and the Tiger. https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...ady-for-combat

well the subtitle of the article is quite interesting:

Germany blames Airbus for the helicopters' low availability, but it is the latest example of the country's general continuing readiness woes.

especially the part after “but”... so is it really ONLY the manufacturers fault? Or a more general issue within some militaries on a budget like: ordering as much helicopters as possible for the given budget, but forgetting that these systems mostly require maintenance and spare parts? Maybe order them in reasonable quantities as well? It is always easy to blame a manufacturer, does not matter if it is in this case Airbus, or for example Lockheed for a JSF, but there is always a “backstory.

well the subtitle of the article is quite interesting:

Germany blames Airbus for the helicopters' low availability, but it is the latest example of the country's general continuing readiness woes.

especially the part after “but”... so is it really ONLY the manufacturers fault? Or a more general issue within some militaries on a budget like: ordering as much aircraft as possible for the given budget, but forgetting that these systems mostly require maintenance and spare parts? Maybe order those in reasonable quantities as well? It is always easy to blame a manufacturer (not that they don’t play a part as well...), does not matter if it is in this case Airbus, or for example Lockheed for a JSF, but there is always a “backstory.

So if the NH90 is such a lemon why do the RNZAF have such a high availability rate with their ones.

Meanwhile, in Mali, it’s been in operational service for the last 6 years: https://www-helis-com.cdn.ampproject.../sahel-nh90-6/

This is an excellent question, Ned. Without comparing all the KPI's it's hard to assess any of it, but if an operator is succeeding when most others appear to be failing, that is surely critical information for every operator to analyze and incorporate into their programme. Included in that equation must be adequate budget and resources to support and operate the fleet, as quite rightly noted above.

I would assume that these big European countries would have a MUCH BIGGER budget than a tiny little country here at the bottom of the world :)