Paris, June 18, 2025 – Airbus Helicopters and Leonardo have officially joined forces to launch a comprehensive architecture study for the next evolution of the NH90 military helicopter, known as Block 2. The initiative, requested by NAHEMA (NATO Helicopter Management Agency), aims to define the long-term development of the NH90 platform to meet the future operational requirements of NATO member states.
The study is expected to be contracted before the end of the year and will lay the groundwork for potential upgrades across European NH90 fleets in line with broader next-generation rotorcraft strategies.
What Block 2 Will Bring
The Block 2 upgrade will focus on:
- Modular avionics architecture
- Improved maintenance and performance
- Greater configuration commonality among variants
- New collaborative combat and connectivity capabilities
- Crewed-Uncrewed Teaming (CU-T) integration
These enhancements will build on the Block 1 (Software Release 3) upgrade signed in 2024, which already enhanced NH90s with better sensors, navigation, tactical data sharing, and weapons integration.
“The NH90 Block 2 evolution will benefit from technologies explored in the European Next Generation Rotorcraft Technologies study,” said Bruno Even, CEO of Airbus Helicopters.
“We aim to deliver a study that aligns with NAHEMA’s expectations and the capability roadmaps of partner nations,” added Gian Piero Cutillo, MD of Leonardo Helicopters.
A Pan-European Future for NH90
This cooperation stems from the Memorandum of Understanding signed in July 2024 between Airbus and Leonardo, underscoring a joint commitment to modernising the NH90 fleet and securing its relevance in future NATO and EU defense architectures.
With the NH90 Block 2 study, Airbus and Leonardo signal a clear ambition: to ensure Europe’s battlefield rotorcraft remain at the cutting edge through interoperability, modularity, and next-gen integration.
