The Dutch armed forces took delivery of the first customer NFH 90 helicopter shortly before Christmas.
The aircraft, the first of 12 NFH 90s The Netherlands has on order, was handed over on December 23 at the AgustaWestland facility in Italy were it was built, and has been delivered in a ‘Meaningful Operational Capable (MOC)’ configuration for ongoing test and evaluation work, crew training, search and rescue, and basic surveillance operations. Further development is ongoing to provide the NFH 90 with its ultimate anti-submarine (ASW) and anti-shipping (ASuW) capabilities, certification for which is planned by the end of the year.
The NFH 90 is a likely contender to replace the Australian Navy’s 16 S-70B-2 Seahawks under Project Air 9000 Phase 8.
