The UK’s New Medium Helicopter programme was finally addressed on 2 March 2026 with an order from the UK MoD for 23 Leonardo AW149 medium multi-role helicopters. However, what specific types the procurement actually covers has still not been overtly stated.
On 2 March 2026 it was finally officially confirmed that the UK armed forces’ truncated New Medium Helicopter (NMH) requirement had been addressed, with Leonardo announcing it had received a GBP 1 billion (EUR 1.15 billion) contract from the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) for 23 AW149 medium multi-role helicopters.
The news had initially emerged on 27 February, with an announcement by the trade union Unite lauding a “tremendous victory” that would secure “over 10,000 highly skilled jobs at Leonardo, its supply chain and the surrounding community”. It was not until three days later, however, that the news emerged ‘from the horse’s mouth’.
The NMH contract is substantially a recapitalisation of the Royal Air Force’s (RAF’s) fleet of retired Puma HC2 medium helicopters, with the 23-aircraft order corresponding to the total size of the RAF’s HC2 fleet when the NMH programme was first initiated in March 2021 according to the UK MoD’s officially published equipment holdings for 2021. However, Warsight understands that the number of Puma HC2s listed as being ‘in service’ in 2021 – 17 aircraft – did, in fact, correspond to the number of aircraft that could potentially have become operational, meaning that the 23-aircraft NMH order represents an uplift in operational airframes.
More crucially, however, as celebrated by Unite, the contract ensures the continuation of a sovereign UK helicopter manufacturing capability at Leonardo’s facilities in Yeovil, Somerset – traditionally known as the ‘Home of British Helicopters’ ever since Westland began building rotorcraft there after the Second World War. This capability relates not just to a helicopter production line, but to the ability to conduct urgent operational requirement (UOR) work on UK in-service military helicopter fleets – work that has been already done multiple times in the past at Yeovil.
In a written answer tabled in the UK House of Commons on 11 March, Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry Luke Polland noted that the NMH’s entry into service “is expected in January 2031, with the first aircraft delivered in the summer of 2030”. Pollard added that the final aircraft is expected to be delivered in the autumn of 2033.
This is a long time to wait, given that Leonardo has previously asserted that it could deliver the first AW149 within 12 to 14 months. However, Pollard maintained that the “financial profile for NMH has not changed since the release of the Invitation To Negotiate in February 2024”, adding that “approximately one third of the contract value is expected to be accounted for over the next three financial years”.
In its now-truncated form the NMH effort has failed to deliver on its original goals. When first announced by the UK MoD in March 2021 the NMH programme, valued at GBP 1.2 billion plus VAT, was intended to procure up to 44 examples of a common helicopter type to address four key requirements:
However, on 18 April 2024 the MoD announced it had awarded Airbus a GBP 122 million (EUR 142.6 million) contract for six Airbus H145s – smaller helicopters than the NMH solution was intended to be – to provide aviation support for the UK armed forces in Brunei and Cyprus.
When the UK MoD issued a revised NMH invitation to negotiate in February 2024, the budget had been reduced to GBP 950 million including VAT, with the MoD stating that it was looking for a minimum of 23 aircraft up to a maximum of 33 aircraft, with ‘extra points’ for bidders offering more than 23 aircraft.
This ultimately led Leonardo’s rival bidders, Airbus Helicopters with the H175M and Lockheed Martin UK with the S-70M Black Hawk, to pull out of the programme due to the financials not adding up. After Airbus and Lockheed Martin confirmed their withdrawal from the NMH programme in advance of the bid deadline of midnight on 30 August 2024, Leonardo UK remained as the sole remaining bidder with its AW149. In theory, this may also have allowed Leonardo to pitch their bid at the minimum 23-aircraft requirement in an effort to preserve whatever margins remained in addressing the programme.
A precursor to a resolution of the NMH requirement was generally expected to be the emergence of the UK MoD’s latest Defence Investment Plan (DIP). This was originally scheduled for publication in the autumn of 2025 but has faced repeated postponements as the MoD addresses what is believed to be a GBP 28 billion (EUR 32 billion) black hole in funding over the next four years. While March has been proffered as the time the DIP could finally emerge, some sources have suggested it might slip even further to the right – and possibly into a new financial year, with all the new complications that would bring.
Meanwhile, the retirement of the RAF’s fleet of Puma HC2 helicopters at the end of March 2025, after almost 54 years of operational service, has left a capability gap in UK medium rotary-wing airlift. Originally, 48 Puma HC1s were ordered for the RAF, to which one captured Argentine SA 330J and six ex-South African SA 330Ls were added. In 2007 it was decided that 24 Puma HC1s would be upgraded to the HC2 standard, which introduced more powerful Turbomeca Makila 1A1 engines, a glass cockpit, an improved defensive aids suite and other enhancements. At the time the type was withdrawn in March 2025, the RAF’s HC2 fleet size officially stood at a total of 20 aircraft (although fewer than this would have been potentially operational). Spanning this capability gap has almost certainly put additional hours on the RAF’s fleet of Chinook HC5/6/6A heavylift helicopters.
In presenting Leonardo’s third-quarter earnings on 5 November 2025, the company’s CEO, Roberto Cingolani, noted a recent meeting with UK Defence Secretary John Healey over the NMH issue. “We made clear that we are waiting. For us, time matters at this point,” he said. “We cannot subsidise Yeovil forever. It’s 14 years that we don’t get any contract from the UK government. It’s getting difficult for us to keep this big plant alive without institutional collaboration.”
Following this up in the UK House of Commons on 12 January 2026, Liberal Democrat MP for Yeovil Adam Dance asked Polland for an update on the NMH situation. Pollard replied, “The Government will make a final decision on the award of the NMH contract through the wider Defence Investment Plan. As the Defence Secretary has said in this House, we are working flat out to deliver the DIP. … It will be published as soon as possible.”
Then, speaking in the House of Commons on 11 February, Pollard maintained in relation to a potential AW149 purchase that the UK government “will not time out” on a decision, indicating that the MoD would, indeed, award an NMH contract before Leonardo’s bid offer expired at the end of March.
When approached by Warsight Leonardo UK declined to specifically outline what helicopter work is currently ongoing at Yeovil, but this is believed to include: the manufacture of three AW159 Wildcats ordered for the Algerian Navy in March 2025; deep maintenance of the UK armed forces’ multiple fleets of Merlins and Wildcats, and possibly deep maintenance of those types operated by other users; and occasional work on civilian Leonardo-built helicopters.
The UK defence-industrial benefits of keeping rotary-wing operations ongoing at Yeovil were a major consideration in NMH determinations. Of the three NMH bids initially received by the MoD, only Leonardo’s included a fully fledged UK-sovereign helicopter production line (Airbus had said it would assemble and maintain the H175M at Broughton in North Wales, while Lockheed Martin UK (LMUK) said it would initially supply S-70i airframes from Polish subsidiary PZL Mielec and build its programme to 40% UK-sourced content).
However, regarding the NMH requirements a question remains: whether the AW149 is, indeed, the future rotorcraft that the RAF actually needs and wants. The AW149, after all, was not positively selected under the NMH programme; it simply emerged as the last helicopter standing after the H175M and S-70M Black Hawk were pulled from the contest by Airbus Helicopters and LMUK respectively amid a general consensus that the financial numbers for the programme just didn’t add up. Warsight understands, however, that sources within the RAF are generally content with an AW149 procurement.
Powered by either two General Electric CT7-2E1 or two Safran Aneto-1K turboshafts, the AW149 offers a useful load of 3,800 kg, as well as an underslung load capacity of 2,800 kg, and a cabin capacity that can accommodate 16 fully equipped troops. The type has a maximum speed of 313 km/h and a range of around 1,009 km at its maximum gross weight at 1,524 m (5,000 ft) when powered by CT7-2E1s (or 913 km when powered by Aneto-1Ks).
By contrast the Puma HC2s that the AW149 would replace could typically accommodate 12 fully equipped troops, or 2,000 kg of freight, and had a range of 580 km.
The Airbus H175M, meanwhile, can accommodate up to 16 troops, or a 3,000 kg payload, and offers a range of 1,111 km with standard fuel tanks, while the S-70M Black Hawk can accommodate 12 fully equipped troops or offer a useful load of 4,695 kg (with an underslung load capacity of 4,082 kg), and has a baseline range of 520 km (or an extended operations range of 740 km when equipped with external fuel tanks).
Those few specifications, of course, cannot offer a full comparison between the helicopters formerly vying for the NMH requirement, while UK defence-industrial considerations would always have been a prominent aspect of the bidding determination.
For military operations the AW149 has so far been ordered by the Egyptian Navy, the Polish Land Forces, the Royal Thai Army and the North Macedonia Air Brigade. It is worth observing that Poland ordered 32 AW149s in 2022, 27 of which are being manufactured in country by PZL-Świdnik, despite S-70i Black Hawks being manufactured in Poland by PZL Mielec (the Poland Land Forces operate eight S-70i Black Hawks).
The UK MoD, like the Polish Land Forces, has selected General Electric CT7-2E1 turboshafts to power its AW149s.
Despite the now-confirmed NMH order for 23 AW149s, a question remains over precisely what the procurement covers. Warsight initially asked the UK MoD to confirm whether the contract with Leonardo for 23 AW149s covered the special-forces-roled Dauphin IIs as well as being a Puma HC2 recapitalisation. The response, however, indicated that the AW149s will undertake defence tasks that were previously delivered by no less than three different aircraft types, of which one type remains in service (the Dauphin II) with the other two types now out of service (the Puma HC2 and another type).
Beyond that an MoD spokesperson declined to elaborate, with this reticence suggesting that the third helicopter covered by the NMH contract was also special forces related. For example, several Lynx AH9As were formerly operated by the AAC’s No 657 Squadron out of RAF Odiham in a special forces support role. As the Lynx approached being withdrawn from service as a type in 2018 there was originally a plan to replace these aircraft with a number of AW159 Wildcats, but this was dropped due to budget constraints and the squadron, which had been operating four remaining Lynx AH9As, was disbanded in May 2018.
Up until October 2023 the AAC also operated a fleet of Gazelle AH1 helicopters across multiple squadrons, including a number flown in Northern Ireland by No 665 Squadron that carried a specialised surveillance fit.
In December 2025 news emerged from Norwegian national broadcaster NRK, reportedly based on information provided by the Norwegian Ministry of Defence, suggesting that Norway is about to procure the AW149 alongside the UK.
Those procurements would come as part of wider UK-Norwegian strategic collaboration under the Lunna House Agreement, signed on 4 December 2025. This bilateral defence co-operation – which has already seen the Norwegian government select British Type 26 anti-submarine warfare (ASW) frigates under a GBP 10 billion deal announced on 31 August 2025 – is focused particularly on naval co-operation to counter Russian submarines in the North Atlantic. However, the Lunna House Agreement will also see wider military collaboration, such as year-round training of Royal Marines in Norway, as well as deeper defence-industrial collaboration, such as the Royal Navy adopting Norway’s advanced Naval Strike Missile and closer collaboration on the procurement of UK-produced Sting Ray lightweight torpedoes to boost munitions stockpiles.
If this news turns out to be correct, AW149 contracts from Norway in addition to the UK would significantly bolster business at Yeovil – and could even make up for the reduced size of the truncated NMH programme.
For veteran observers of UK defence procurement the erstwhile precarious nature of Leonardo’s operations at Yeovil will no doubt bring a sense of déjà vu. Back in 1985 an argument was brewing within the Conservative government of then UK prime minister Margarat Thatcher over how to rescue what was then Westland Helicopters. The objective then – as now – was to preserve a sovereign UK helicopter manufacturing capacity. While the UK defence secretary of the time, Michael Heseltine, favoured a solution that would see Westland integrated with at least one European manufacturer, Thatcher and her trade and industry secretary, Leon Brittan, were pushing for a tie-up with US helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky.
Although Westland favoured a tie-up with Sikorsky, it had already entered an agreement with Italian helicopter manufacturer Agusta, which led to a joint company, EH Industries, developing the EH101 Merlin. Disagreements within Thatcher’s Cabinet, amid Heseltine’s accusations that constitutional law had not been observed, ultimately saw Thatcher’s premiership survive, while Heseltine resigned.
Ultimately, the engineering company GKN, a major Westland shareholder, bought the shares of Sikorsky parent company United Technologies, which was also a significant Westland shareholder, in 1994, with the re-named GKN Westland Helicopters emerging in 1995.
In 1998 GKN and Italy’s Finmeccanica began negotiations to create a joint venture by combining their respective helicopter companies, Westland and Agusta, with AgustaWestland formed in July 2000. From 1 January 2017 Finmeccanica then officially became Leonardo, with operations at Yeovil becoming those of Leonardo UK.
Thus, while Heseltine ultimately saw his vision realised some 15 years after the event, operations at Yeovil in 2026 have only now come out of the woods.
