Airbus shuns Chinese components for H175 with UK military programme in mind

Airbus Helicopters UK reports progress on construction of its first H175 airframe with components ‘built fully in Europe’, a company spokesperson noted on 14 June.

The airframe could be the first to be delivered (as the H175M) to the MoD under the UK New Medium Helicopter programme, if it is selected to replace 23 Puma HC2s and three other rotary-wing types in the mid-2020s.

The latest airframe ‘has been produced entirely free of any elements sourced from China as the result of a project that has been underway for the past five years, capitalising on European aerostructures capability’, the spokesperson added.

Colin James, MD of Airbus Helicopters UK, said: ‘We have built the first airframe using a supply base completely compliant with Western military requirements and we have identified multiple supplier sources who can provide the last two components of the complete helicopter which need to be replaced.’

He added that the H175M would be ‘fully capable of fulfilling the UK's NMH needs and of becoming a sustainable UK export product with the potential to resurrect the capacity and capability of the country's helicopter industry’.

A total of 26 civilian H175 helicopters are already in daily operations over the North Sea.