Norway has terminated its 14-helicopter contract with NH Industries (NHI) and will return the 13 NH90 helicopters so far delivered. Oslo is also demanding a full refund of the NKr5 billion (over US$500 million) it has spent on their acquisition plus interest and other costs.
Head of Norwegian defence materiel Agency Gro Jaere cited severe delays to the delivery of the helicopters, reliability, maintenance issues, and component obsolescence as the main reasons for the contract termination.
According to Jaere, reliability issues had continued to afflict the helicopters. In their final configuration, the per flight hour failure rate was 40 times too high.
NHIndustries yesterday released a statement condemning the Norwegian Ministry of Defence announcement to terminate the contract.
In the statement, NHIndustries expressed that it was “extremely disappointed” by the decision taken by the Norwegian Ministry of Defence, and that it “refutes the allegations being made against the NH90 as well as against the Company.”
NHIndustries claimed that it was not offered the possibility to discuss a latest proposal made to improve the availability of the NH90 in Norway and to address specific Norwegian requirements, and that it considers the termination to be legally groundless.
“The NH90’s inherent characteristics offer any armed forces with an advanced, fully integrated mission capability, survivability, speed, range of action, discretion as well as night and all-weather operations without equal in the world in its category,” read the statement.
“In its naval configuration, it is an incomparable asset to answer the needs of Norwegian Armed Forces, allowing the most advanced surveillance capabilities in the North Sea, just as the NH90 is doing elsewhere across Europe at sea protecting nations.”
“With 13 helicopters delivered out of 14 and the fourteenth ready for acceptance, we were close to finalizing the main scope of the initial contract.”
NHIndustries is owned by Airbus Helicopters (62.5%), Leonardo (32%) and GKN Fokker (5.5%).
