Page 20 - SINGAPORE AIRSHOW 2024 - INSIGHT

Rotarywing Contender

Leonardo’s AW149 is a growing candidate

for military rotorcraft requirements

Leonardo’s AW149, which is gaining By our Special Correspondent a fully integrated defensive aids
increasing interest from military suite along with additional armour
operators around the globe, has is Leonardo’s latest generation protection
started the year with an addition medium multi-role battlefield heli-
to its orderbook from Macedonia. copter, and it has a small footprint
In January, it was announced that but a large cabin. The AW149s foot- The AW149 is on offer with
Macedonia would acquire eight heli- print is similar to the Bell 212, but two engine options for the UK
copters (4 AW149 and 4 AW169M) whereas the latter is a 5-tonne heli- NMH requirement - General
in a deal worth an estimated EUR copter, the former is in the 8.5 tonne Electric’s (GE) CT7-2E1 and
330 million. The Polish Land Forces category.” The AW149’s large cabin Safran Helicopter Engines (SHE)
had taken delivery of their first two can accommodate 12 fully armed Aneto-1K, which develop 2000 shp
AW149 helicopters in October 2023 troops, with the ability to go up to and 2500 shp respectively. The
as part of a EUR 1.76 billion deal. 16 troops seated in four rows of four Aneto-1K is a derivative of SHE’s
The new Polish military helicopter’s passengers. 19 passengers can be RTM322, which was fitted on the
configuration includes observa- accommodated in the high-density UK’s AH-64D Apache attack heli-
tion systems, small arms, guided/ seating configuration. The AW149’s copters and on Royal Navy Merlin
unguided rockets and missiles and large cabin also means that crew helicopters. The Safran powerplant
self-defence systems. Depending served weapons can be fitted with- is better suited for operations in
on the helicopter variant and config- out impacting door space. The wide ‘Hot and High’ environments but
uration, the armament is is installed cabin also allows stretchers to be comes with a weight penalty and
in the cabin or on its external hard carried across the cabin. burns more fuel. The GE CT7-2E1
points. The new AW149 is also con- offers good range and endurance
sidered by the European airframer The AW149 also offers excellent but still very good ‘Hot and High’
to be a possible candidate for the battlefield survivability with high performance capability. The AW149
Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF), levels of ballistic tolerance of the also shares commonalities with
which would need to to replace its blades, airframe and components, the AW189 which was previously
Sikorsky S-61A-4 Nuris which were crashworthy fuselage and seats, produced on-site in Yeovil. Both
phased out from service in 2020. energy-absorbing landing gear types share the same external foot-
and structure. The main gearbox print in addition to having common
The AW149 is also competing for has a 50-minute dry run capa- engines, drivetrain, blades, Digital
the UK’s New Medium Helicopter bility, while the helicopter also Automatic Flight Control Systems,
and Flight Management System..
(NMH) requirement. The AW149 features self-sealing fuel tanks,

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