After years of technical issues and delays, Oslo has reached an agreement with the European consortium that ends legal claims and recovers part of the invested funds.
NHIndustries has agreed to pay Norway €375 million in compensation for the NH90 helicopters that failed to meet contractual specifications and deadlines.
The agreement, announced by the Norwegian Ministry of Defence, officially ends the legal dispute the government was preparing against the European manufacturer.
Under the settlement, the consortium — composed of Airbus Helicopters, Leonardo, and Fokker — will take back all delivered NH90 helicopters along with their components and make a direct payment of €305 million, plus provide an additional €70 million bank guarantee.
Amount below expectations
The final sum is significantly lower than the €2.8 billion initially estimated as losses by the Norwegian government. Still, it roughly matches the €500 million paid to NHIndustries for the delivery of 14 helicopters.
Defence officials acknowledged that even if the case had gone to court, there was no guarantee of full compensation. The agreement was therefore considered a pragmatic solution to close a long-running dispute and recover part of the public funds.
A troubled contract from the start
Norway announced the purchase of 14 NH90 helicopters in 2001, intended for the Royal Norwegian Navy and Coast Guard. Deliveries were supposed to take place between 2005 and 2008, but the first unit was only received in December 2011 — six years late.
Since then, the program has been plagued by technical problems, maintenance failures, and chronic delays. In 2016, after only six aircraft had been delivered, an Armed Forces report concluded that the fleet could not achieve the required flight hours.
A new study in 2018 indicated the fleet could become useful if access to spare parts and maintenance capacity improved, with a goal of stabilization by 2022 — which never materialized.
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Cancellation and replacement with Seahawks
In June 2022, then-Minister of Defence Bjorn Arild Gram officially announced the termination of the contract with NHIndustries, citing delays, failures, and excessive maintenance costs.
At that time, 13 helicopters had been delivered, but only eight were fully operational.
The following year, Oslo confirmed the purchase of six MH-60R Seahawk helicopters from the United States as partial replacements for the NH90 fleet.
Dissatisfaction with the NH90 program is not unique to Norway. In Belgium, Defence Minister Theo Franken described the acquisition of NH90 TTH helicopters as a failed purchase and announced plans to retire them soon.
Source: Regjeringen.no | Wikimedia | NHIndustries. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
