NATO’s Next Generation Rotorcraft Capability project

The next step in the multinational programme on the Next Generation Medium Multi-Role Helicopter was set on 16 June 2022 in Brussels, when six countries officially launched the Next Generation Rotorcraft Capability (NGRC) project to allocate funds of €26,7 million to set up the requirements.

In November 2020, Scramble Magazine reported on the signing of a Letter of Intent (LoI) by five countries to develop a new helicopter capability to replace the existing helicopters currently in their inventory. With the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Brussels, the Netherlands joined the NGRC project. Spain and the US, which had earlier expressed interest, did not join up. The United Kingdom is the lead country for the project.

The goal is to replace the current generation of medium multi-role helicopters, such as the NH90 and the AW101 Merlin, because they will reach the end of their life cycle in the period 2035-2040. While the MoU does not lock the countries into buying a final design together, all six NATO nations operating the same system would have obvious interoperability benefits.

Photo by Ben Uffen (Scramble Archive)