Having presented the newly-flown first production NH90 at the Berlin
air show in May, NHIndustries and its partners, Eurocopter, AgustaWestland
and Stork Fokker, are at Farnborough promoting the utility and maritime
rotorcraft for no fewer than three UK requirements - Support Amphibious
Battlefield Rotorcraft, Surface Combatant Maritime Rotorcraft and
Light Battlefield Utility Helicopter, intended respectivedly to
replace Pumas, Lynxes and Sea Kings.
Conceived as a pan-NATO project, the NH90 already has the backing
of 325 firm orders, plus 86 options, from Finland, France, Germany,
Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Sweden. Contributing
to this success has been its open systems architecture, allowing
'plug and play' sensor and weapon addition; fly-by-wire control
system; and low operating cost.
The two main branches of the NH90 family are NFH (NATO Frigate
Helicopter) for shipboard applications and the air force or army
TTH (Tactical Transport Helicopter), the latter also being seen
as a vehicle for combat SAR and special forces support, in addition
to regular fetching and carrying. They share a common, modular design,
incorporating a 'diamond' shape fuselage for low detectability allied
to optimal aerodynamics. Flight controls are fly-by-wire - the first
time this technology has appeared in a production helicopter.
As such, NH90s are qualified for day/night, all-weather operations,
aided by forward-looking infrared with a helmet-mounted display
and sight. Capable of operating in a heavy electronic threat environment,
it features fully digital management systems to minimize the crew's
workload.
- Paul Jackson
Noteworthy
EADS is equipping the NH90 with mission avionics subsystems
in contracts amounting to more than Euro 100 million. These
cover 350 EuroGrid digital mapping subsystems and 400 flight
data recorders. As its name suggests, EuroGrid is a mission
system which not only supports conventional navigation displays
with geographic maps of any area of the world, but also allows
configurations to cover mission planning and displaying the
real-time tactical data with information exchange by datalink.
The system also stores sensor information for post-flight
debriefings.
