NATO estimates that some of its helicopter fleet will retire in the next 15-20 years. For this reason, at the NATO summit held at the end of June in Madrid, Spain, the Ministers of Defense from six NATO member countries – France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, and the UK – agreed to carry out the Next Generation Rotorcraft Technologies (NGRT) project.
The NGRT was promoted to create the future platform for NATO standard helicopters in Europe. To realize the NGRT, a consortium of six NATO countries has prepared a budget of around 26.7 million euros (US$28.16) million to determine the project requirements within three years.
About the requirements in question, will be formed based on the latest technologies available in the market such as the use of hybrid and electric propulsion, a systematic open system architecture, and radically improved flight characteristics.
Quoted from Janes.com (26/7/2022), it is stated that two champion aerospace manufacturers from Europe, namely Airbus Helicopters and Leonardo Helicopters, will lead the NGRT project to develop a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) platform for the post-2035 period.
The two helicopter manufacturers announced a cooperation arrangement in late July, noting that the project would pave the way for the future of military helicopters in Europe. The NGRT project will be funded by the European Defense Fund (EDF), a financial body under the European Union.
The short-term task of Airbus and Leonardo will be to study the future operating environment (FOE) and future operating concepts (FOC) on military VTOL vehicles in Europe. Airbus and Leonardo will also study aspects of operability and operational flexibility; affordability in both procurement and life cycle costs; survivability, logistics; parts; to the potential for high-intensity conflict to occur in the future.
As an initial requirement set by NATO is a modular medium transport helicopter that is unmanned or piloted remotely, including adoption of a digital backbone and multi-sensor fusion with the help of artificial intelligence. For the price, NATO sets the maximum price per aircraft at 35 million euros (US$37 million) with the average flight cost not exceeding 10,000 euros (US$10,500).
From a technical aspect, the NGRT is expected to realize a helicopter lift capacity of 4,000 kg with at least a payload of 2,500 kg in the internal cabin. These conditions are achieved at least in conditions of 80 percent fuel and maximum take-off weight of 10-17 tons.
Helicopters are required to be able to carry 12 to 16 complete troops with an average weight of 160 kilograms. Speaking of range, the future helicopter can fly at least 900 nautical miles (1,650 kilometers) with an endurance of 5-8 hours, including the support of external fuel tanks.
NATO also has a speed limit requirement, that Airbis and Leonardo must be able to build a helicopter that can fly at a speed of 407 km per hour.
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