UK to make NMH decision before Leonardo's offer expires in March, says minister

With Leonardo's AW149 the sole remaining option for the UK's NMH requirement, the government has said that a decision will be made before the company's offer expires in March. (Janes/Akhil Kadidal)

The UK government intends to make its long-awaited decision on the New Medium Helicopter (NMH) programme in the coming days, a senior minister said on 11 February.

Debating the issue in the House of Commons, the Minister of State at the Ministry of Defence (MoD), Luke Pollard, said that the decision to acquire the AW149 from the last sole bidder Leonardo, or not, will be made before the Yeovil-based manufacturer's current offer expires. This is due to happen in March.

“[The member of parliament for Yeovil, Adam Dance] is right that the best and final offer price has an expiry date, but we have committed as a government that we will not time out – that is, it will not simply fail at that point. We will make a decision ahead of that, as part of the work we are doing on the Defence Investment Plan [DIP],” Pollard said.

Janes first reported in January 2021 the MoD's intention to launch the NMH competition. Formally commenced later that year, the GBP1 billion (USD1.4 billion) requirement to replace 23 Puma HC2s with “up to 44” new helicopters was initially downselected to the Airbus Helicopters H175M, Leonardo AW149, and Lockheed Martin S-70M Black Hawk (a previous element of the wider GBP1.2 billion requirement that included the replacement of three other helicopter types was earlier separated out). Both Airbus Helicopters and Lockheed Martin withdrew from the process in August 2024, with each saying they were unable to fulfil the requirement within the allotted budget, leaving Leonardo as the sole competing supplier.