Airbus remains committed to H175M despite NMH withdrawal

The H175M will continue to be pitched to the international market, despite Airbus pulling the medium-twin helicopter from the UK NMH competition. (Janes/Gareth Jennings)

Airbus remains committed to offering its H175M to the international market despite withdrawing the platform from the United Kingdom's New Medium Helicopter (NMH) competition, a company representative told Janes on 4 September.

Responding to a request for clarification on the future of the H175M following Airbus Helicopters' announcement on 30 August that it would not be pursuing the NMH requirement for programmatic reasons, a spokesperson said that work to develop and offer the medium-twin engined helicopter to other potential customers would continue.

“We have a number of campaigns running worldwide. We continue to develop the H175M and will shape the detailed activity in alignment with the needs of customers. We will take decisions regarding the location of production depending on the identity, nature, and aspirations of the customer,” the spokesperson said.

Based on the civil H175, which is also known as the Aviocopter AC352 (formerly known as Z-15) and co-developed with China, the H175M was launched as a military platform specifically to secure the UK's NMH Puma HC2 replacement programme.

When that decision was announced in January 2021, Airbus said that UK industry would be involved in the design, development, and manufacture of the military standard helicopter. While the focus of its H175M development was very much on the UK, Airbus had told Janes of its efforts to internationalise the platform long before it decided not to continue with NMH.