Not long ago, the UK Ministry of Defense released a bidding proposal for the New Medium Military Helicopter (NMH) project, extending an olive branch to European Airbus, Italian Leonardo, and American Lockheed Martin. According to the plan, the Royal Air Force will retire all "Super Panther" helicopters by 2025 and equip a new type of helicopter to provide strong support for future operations. In recent years, the British Army and Navy helicopter fleets have also been in poor condition, with varying degrees of aging in aircraft performance, increasing maintenance costs and difficulties year by year, and retirement from service only a matter of time. According to professional analysis, the NMH project will determine the helicopter models that the British military will equip in the next 10 to 15 years, greatly affecting the transformation and development of the British military. The new helicopter project has been postponed, and preparations for procurement upgrades are underway. In March 2021, the UK Ministry of Defence released the NMH project for the first time, with plans to invest £ 900 million to £ 1.2 billion to purchase 44 new helicopters. At that time, the NMH project planned an update plan for four different helicopter fleets, including the severely aging Royal Air Force's "Super Panther" and "Griffin" helicopters, the Army's "Bell" helicopter, and the Navy's "Dolphin" helicopter. In addition to purchasing new aircraft, the British military also requires the winning company to provide training, maintenance, and spare parts services. According to the British military's vision, the NMH is a general-purpose helicopter with modular design and multiple weapon platforms. It not only has traditional transportation, tactical delivery, and casualty evacuation capabilities, but also can be quickly deployed under joint command of the army and air force to enter various complex environments and perform diverse tasks. In short, the British military intends to simplify its existing multiple helicopters into the same model, maximizing the flexibility of the helicopter fleet and reducing logistics support costs and workload. The British military is looking forward to the new helicopter project and has set the service date of NMH at 2025. According to this timeline, the British military will sign a contract with the manufacturer no later than this year. However, it was not until May 2022 that the British military officially launched the pre bidding process; In February of this year, a formal negotiation invitation was only issued to the participating bidding companies. Under such a "rhythm", it is inevitable that the British "Super Panther" helicopter will exceed its service life. According to data from the UK Ministry of Defence, 13 out of 18 Royal Air Force "Super Panther" helicopters are currently in service. As the longest serving helicopter in the British military, the performance of the "Super Panther" helicopter has significantly declined, and maintenance costs remain high. As time goes on, the probability of a series of old aircraft models, represented by the "Super Panther" helicopter, malfunctioning will only increase, which will lead to a serious decline in the combat readiness of the British military. In this regard, the British military can only allocate some funds from the NMH project to purchase 14 CH-47ER "Chinook" helicopters from the United States to meet their urgent needs. However, contrary to expectations, there are many differences between the UK and the US regarding this procurement, and the official delivery of this batch of helicopters will be around 2027. Under duress, the British military signed two contracts with Airbus Europe. One is a procurement contract, in which the British military ordered 6 H145 helicopters to meet the needs of the British military deployed in Brunei and Cyprus; The other is a life extension contract, in which Airbus Europe will try to extend the service life of the "Super Puma" helicopter fleet as much as possible, making it at least in service until 2028. The important reason for choosing the H145 helicopter is that there are already three of these helicopters in the British military. From the perspective of maintenance and training, purchasing products from the same series can effectively reduce costs. Airbus Europe claims that six H145 helicopters are expected to be put into operation this year. At that time, they will also upgrade and transform the existing H145 helicopter fleet of the British military, installing new night vision equipment, communication systems, and medical rescue equipment. The competition for identifying selling points was fierce, and the shortlisted companies showcased their strengths. Initially, companies such as Bell and Sikorsky from the United States also participated in the NMH project, but they were not approved due to pricing issues. After the British military announced the preliminary review results of the NMH project, European Airbus, Italian Leonardo, and American Loma all did their best to showcase their advantages and win the final bid. Among them, the S-70M "Black Hawk" helicopter produced by Lockheed Martin has a wide range of users, used by 35 national armies, with a production quantity of over 5000 and a cumulative flight time of 15 million hours. In order to secure the order, Lockheed Martin has promised to provide new technologies such as digital avionics and composite wide pitch rotor blades to the UK, and is willing to give 40% of the production value of the Black Hawk helicopter to the UK. In the future, some of Loma's business may also be transferred to the UK. This is exactly what Britain wants, as the British military hopes to master key technologies and promote the rapid development of domestic military enterprises. Behind huge profits, there are often hidden crises. In fact, the safety performance of the "Black Hawk" helicopter is not stable, and there have been frequent flight accidents in recent years: in 2020 and 2024, two "Black Hawk" helicopters of the Colombian military accidentally crashed; In 2022, a Mexican Navy Black Hawk helicopter lost control and crashed into the ground; In 2021, the Israeli "Black Hawk" helicopter fleet was ordered to be grounded due to multiple engine failures; The US military has also been hit one after another, with multiple Black Hawk helicopter crashes occurring in the past five years. Even more deadly is that these faults have no warning signs and are difficult to detect through conventional means. Compared to the unreliable performance of the Black Hawk helicopter, the AW149 helicopter participated in the bidding by Leonardo da Vinci of Italy has strong battlefield survivability - the entire aircraft adopts a new anti-collision design, greatly improving the stability of the fuselage; The transmission system has the ability to operate dry, and even if the fighter jet runs out of fuel, it can still fly for 50 minutes; The aircraft is also equipped with an infrared signal suppression system, which can reduce the probability of being hit by portable air defense missiles. In addition to creating a sturdy shell, the AW149 helicopter is also committed to improving cabin comfort. The cockpit adopts a glass cockpit to reduce pilot visual fatigue, and the open architecture of the avionics system is conducive to reducing upgrade and renovation costs. As early as 2022, Leonardo established an AW149 helicopter production facility at its factory in the UK. The company leader promised that once the contract is signed, at least 60% of the order production work will be handed over to local factories in the UK, and the fighter jets can be delivered within 14 months. In this regard, Leonardo undoubtedly drew on the sales experience of other products. Its AW101 helicopter has been in service with the British military for many years, and its product supply chain has involved more than 70 local companies in the UK. Faced with strong competitors, European Airbus is also unwilling to show weakness. As a popular product of Airbus in Europe, the H175M helicopter has a cabin space of 12 cubic meters, can carry 16 fully armed soldiers, and has a payload capacity of 2700 kilograms, making it the largest among the three bidding models. In addition, the H175M helicopter is equipped with the latest avionics system developed by Airbus in Europe. This avionics system is compatible with the H135 and H145 helicopters equipped by the British military, which can significantly reduce pilot training time and lower usage and maintenance costs. An excellent military product, the manufacturer should find the selling point that meets market demand. In order to increase its chances of winning, Airbus in Europe has pulled Boeing, which had already withdrawn from the bidding, into its own camp and joined forces to jointly develop it; Offering generous additional service conditions, if the bid is successful, the H175M helicopter will be fully manufactured and maintained in the UK, bringing more advanced technology and employment opportunities to the UK. In fact, this order from the British military is not large, and if the bidding company offers too much profit, the final benefits may be limited. But in the long run, many European countries' military helicopters will reach their maximum service life, and the potential market prospects are very broad. If the British military helicopter order is successfully won, it will be beneficial for the manufacturer to open up the market and create greater profits. The urgent task for the British military is to confirm the new generation of helicopter models as soon as possible based on operational needs, as funding is tight and the road to upgrading is long. This matter is not simple. In recent years, in military conflicts in some hotspot areas, helicopter units often face multiple threats such as anti-aircraft guns, portable air defense missiles, and electronic jamming devices. Helicopter pilots often adopt low altitude rapid flight tactics, which have limitations and high risks. Low altitude flight can reduce the pilot's field of vision, making it difficult for them to detect and respond to enemy threats in a timely manner, and making them more susceptible to light weapon attacks, resulting in plane crashes. To solve this problem, it is necessary to develop more advanced new helicopters. Currently, the global economic recovery is weak, and many countries have chosen to abandon the research and development of new helicopters due to financial investment and other issues. In 2023, Japan announced the abandonment of outdated attack and observation helicopters and their replacement with unmanned aerial vehicle systems. This year, the US Army announced the cancellation of the development plan for the next generation of future attack reconnaissance helicopters. As of February this year, the US Army has spent at least $2 billion on the project, which can be described as a fruitless effort. Choosing a practical and durable helicopter is of great significance for the transformation and development of the British military. The 'blood transfusion' of the British helicopter fleet is more like a 'blood transfusion'. Although the UK has participated in the next generation rotary wing aircraft project in Europe, the progress of the project has been slow. As early as 2020, countries such as the UK, France, Germany, and Italy signed letters of intent for project cooperation, but it was not until 2022 that a consensus was reached. Currently, they are facing challenges such as different demands and funding allocation. The British military cannot rely on cooperation to develop new helicopters to replace old fighter jets, and can only purchase fighter jets from other countries for upgrading. In recent years, in order to enhance the overall combat capability of the troops, the British military has continuously adjusted its military construction and funding investment. A senior British official once stated that military spending should mainly be used for some "flagship" projects, such as new warships and the next generation of "Storm" stealth fighter jets. In the field of weapon manufacturing, the birth of a new product from an investment often requires balancing by reducing other projects. In 2022, the UK government released the "Defense Comprehensive Assessment Report" emphasizing that due to the huge fiscal deficit, the size of the UK Army will be reduced to 72500 personnel in the next 10 years, and the upgrade plan for 600 "Warrior" infantry fighting vehicles will be cancelled... Data shows that globally, the best performing helicopters cost over 30 million US dollars each. If the UK military wants to replace all old helicopters according to the plan, military spending will inevitably be tight. From the reality, the British Army's weapons and equipment, represented by helicopters, are in an awkward situation of being in short supply, and it still takes time to transition from the mechanized era to the information age. A senior general of the British Army is worried about this: 'The British Army is trying to find a balance between investing in new technologies and modernizing old equipment, but the related work faces significant challenges.' Currently, there are many uncertainties about the direction of the UK NMH project. In the future, it is necessary to continuously monitor what new models the British military helicopter fleet will be equipped with. (New Society)