Stay informed with free updates
Simply sign up to the Aerospace & Defence myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.
A £1bn competition to replace Britain’s workhorse battlefield helicopter is in disarray after two of the three contenders withdrew at the last minute, warning that they were unable to submit viable offers.
Defence contractors Airbus and Lockheed Martin opted not to submit a final bid by Friday’s deadline, leaving just Leonardo UK in the contest to replace the Royal Air Force’s ageing Puma support helicopters.
The new Labour government, which is under pressure to find savings in its defence budget, will now have to decide whether to award the contract to Leonardo or scrap the already delayed programme as part of its strategic defence review.
Airbus, which had offered a militarised version of its H175 helicopter and pledged to build a final assembly line at its plant in Broughton in north Wales, said in a statement that it had been “unable to formulate a responsible bid that would in parallel satisfy the customer’s requirements and provide adequate long-term returns to the business”.
The European aerospace and defence group said it believed the outcome of “this procurement as it stands would not be able to deliver on current defence industrial strategy objectives, particularly its ambition for long-term new jobs, opportunities for the UK supply chain and sovereign capability”.
US rival Lockheed Martin, which had offered its Black Hawk from the company’s Sikorsky business, said in a statement that it had decided not to bid as it “could not meet [the competition’s] minimum requirements in today’s market conditions”.
Leonardo UK — which owns Britain’s only helicopter factory in Yeovil, Somerset and has stressed its local credentials as part of a greater focus on “social value” in defence procurement — confirmed it had submitted an offer.
Adam Clarke, managing director of Leonardo Helicopters UK, which is offering its AW149 helicopter, said the company had met “the [Ministry of Defence’s] requirements, including for social value and UK industrial contribution” because of its “established UK onshore helicopter design and manufacturing capability and a related domestic supply chain”.
The MoD first confirmed in 2021 that the RAF would retire its fleet of 23 Puma helicopters, which were built in the early 1970s, with the aim of bringing in the new helicopters in 2025.
Upgraded versions have been used to carry troops in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The so-called new medium-lift helicopter would replace the Puma as well as three other types.
The initial intent had been to purchase as many as 44 new helicopters in a contract worth up to £1.2bn, but people familiar with the situation said the final number being asked for had fallen, making the procurement unviable.
The Ministry of Defence said the programme was an “important initiative to acquire a modern medium-lift support helicopter” but declined to comment further on the “ongoing competition”.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer last month launched what he called a “root and branch” review of Britain’s military capabilities to ensure the country’s armed forces are able to counter rising geopolitical threats.
The review, which is being led by Labour peer and former Nato secretary-general Lord George Robertson, will report by July 2025 and set out plan for how defence expenditure will rise from 2.3 per cent now to 2.5 per cent.