New Zealand Signs for Nine NH90 Helicopters

Released on Monday, July 31, 2006

The government of New-Zealand announced today a firm order for 9 NH90 to provide 8 operational helicopters to the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF). The NH90 has been selected by New-Zealand in April 2005 as the replacement helicopter for the RNZAF ageing Iroquois. A signing ceremony took place in Wellington with Hon Phil Goff, Minister of Defence of New-Zealand in presence of Philippe Harache, Eurocopter's Senior Executive Vice President.

This additional order for the NH90 comes a few weeks after Australia officially announced an additional contract of 34 MRH90. The NH90 program, led by Eurocopter, now totals 400 firm orders confirming its status of biggest helicopter program ever launched by Europe. The NH90 has been selected by 12 countries including France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Greece, Oman, Australia and New-Zealand. Due to its multi-role capability, the NH90 is able to fulfil a large variety of missions and has been selected for Army, Air Force, Navy and SAR services.

At the ceremony, Philippe Harache declared: "this additional order confirms once again the superiority of the NH90 in its class. We are very proud to supply the government of New-Zealand with military helicopters for the first time ever, given that Eurocopter has been the main supplier of civil helicopters for many years in this country."

The NH90 fleet operated by the RNZAF will perform military tasks, including Peace Keeping operations, but will also provide valuable support to operations conducted in conjunction with other national agencies for Disaster Relief, Search&Rescue, Emergency Medical Service, Police operations, Fisheries Surveillance, Counter Terrorism, Pollution Control and Customs operations.

The medium-size twin-engine NH90 ordered by New-Zealand is the Tactical Transport Version (TTH). The TTH Variant for New-Zealand is basically equipped, as any other NH90, with full glass cockpit, advanced Fly-by-Wire Flight Control System with state-of-the-art Communication, Navigation and Mission Equipment. The NH90 is an extremely capable helicopter featuring a modern damage tolerant design, a large cabin volume with two wide sliding cabin doors and a rear ramp. The NH90's full-composite airframe is corrosion free in any environment, which maximizes survivability and life cycle. The NH90 can carry between 16 and 20 equipped servicemen. It is fully interoperable with NATO and Coalition forces.