Belgium to retire NH90 TTH helicopters as defence minister slams ‘bad purchase'

Having announced in 2020 that it was scaling back its use of the NH90 TTH, Belgium has now said it is to withdraw all four helicopters from service in September. (Belgian MoD)

Belgium is to prematurely retire its NHIndustries (NHI) NH90 Tactical Transport Helicopter (TTH) battlefield rotorcraft, with the country's defence minister slamming the procurement as “a bad purchase”.

Minister of Defence and Foreign Trade Theo Francken made the announcement on 10 July, saying that the NH90 TTH helicopters operated in the overland role by the Belgian Air Component (BAC) are to be withdrawn from service in the coming weeks, with a replacement to be delivered in 2026.

“The four NH90 TTH helicopters will be taken out of service starting in September. Bad purchase. Extremely expensive to maintain. Replacements are coming in 2026,” the minister posted on his official X (formerly Twitter) account.

News of the axing of the NH90 TTH comes five years after the Belgian Ministry of Defence (MoD) said in June 2020 that it was to scale back flight operations of the type due to declining industrial support, rising costs, and staffing shortages. At that time, the MoD said it would instead redirect the NH90 TTH budget line to the four NH90 NATO Frigate Helicopters (NFHs) that the BAC operates in the maritime role. These NH90 NFHs will continue in BAC service following Francken's latest announcement.

As the chief stakeholder of the NHI consortium that also includes Leonardo and Fokker, Airbus Helicopters had not responded to a Janes request for comment at the time of publication.