© AP
Norway is canceling a contract with the European consortium NH Industries (NHI) – which, in addition to Airbus Helicopters, is part of the Italian Leonardo and the Dutch Fokker – for the delivery of 14 military transport helicopters. Reason: Delivery delays and availability issues. The Norwegian government announced this at a press conference on Friday.
ltosource: BELGA
Despite the fact that the order dates back more than twenty years, Oslo said it had received only eight fully operational NH90s. The Norwegian government will now return the 13 helicopters that were delivered in total and is also demanding payment of 5 billion kroner (about 500 million euros). In addition to delivery delays – the original order for 14 aircraft was delivered in 2008 – the Norwegian Army has complained about reliability, maintenance, and component aging issues.
“We have unfortunately come to the conclusion that no matter how many hours our engineers have put in and how many spare parts are ordered, it will not guarantee that the NH90 will be able to meet the needs of the Norwegian Army,” Defense Minister Bjorn said. Arild Gram. The government said his ministry intends to work “quickly” to find an alternative model.
The cancellation is another setback of the NH90, many of which our country also suffers, after the early retirement of the model in the Australian army, in favor of the American Sikorsky Black Hawk. Also in Belgium there has been talk for some time of reducing the number of flying hours and possibly replacing the NH90s with H145M helicopters.
