Norway and NH Industries (NHI) have reached an out-of-court settlement that sees the airframer pay €375 million ($431 million) to end a long-running dispute over a cancelled contract for 14 NH90 military helicopters.
Oslo in 2022 axed its contract for the maritime NH90s – eight operated in support of the coastguard and six for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) missions – after years of delivery delays and the poor availability of its in-service fleet.
It launched the legal action last year after mediation failed and was seeking up to €2.8 billion – a full refund plus expenses – when the case opened in October.
But as a result of the agreement – which sees NHI pay €305 million in cash, plus €70 million already handed over related to bank guarantees – legal action between the parties has now been discontinued.
In return, NHI will take back Oslo’s NH90 fleet, plus spare parts and mission equipment, offering the recovered components to other operators of the 11t-class rotorcraft.
The helicopters have not flown since the contract was cancelled and have been stored at the Royal Norwegian Air Force’s Bardufoss base.
NHI previously performed the same teardown and parts-recovery process with Australia’s fleet of MRH90s when they were withdrawn from service early due to poor availability rates.
Both sides have welcomed the settlement, hailing the “constructive co-operation” between the parties who “demonstrated a willingness to resolve the matter”.
Dating from an original commitment in 2001, the contract was modified multiple times as Norway sought to get the acquisition back on track.
A 2017 agreement set out that deliveries of new NH90s in a final operational configuration would be completed in 2019, and upgrades of earlier examples finished by 2022. However, NHI failed to meet even that revised schedule.
In all, Norway budgeted NKr10.2 billion ($951 million) – including tax and provision for contingencies – for the acquisition, spending just over half of that total.
Since the cancellation, Oslo has begun the process of replacing the NH90s, ordering six Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawks for the coastguard mission.
It has yet to decide on a new ASW helicopter, although both the MH-60R and Leonardo Helicopters AW101 are in contention.
Leonardo Helicopters is part of the NHI joint venture alongside Airbus Helicopters and GKN/Fokker.
