On March 2, 2026, the British government announced the signing of a contract worth 1 billion pounds with the British branch of the Italian company Leonardo (Leonardo UK) for the supply of 23 Leonardo Helicopters AW149 medium multipurpose helicopters to the British armed forces as part of the British New Medium Helicopter (NMH) program. Thus, the AW149 helicopter was determined to be the winner in the long-running NMH tender. Four ground-based simulators are also included in the contract.
One of the prototypes of the Leonardo Helicopters AW149 helicopter in advertising paint for the British Air Force during a demonstration at the RIAT-2022 airshow in Hertfordshire, 07/15/2022 (c) Airwolfhound
The NMH program was launched by the British Ministry of Defense in March 2021 and initially provided for the purchase of 44 new medium multirole helicopters to replace the 23 Westland Puma HC transport helicopters in the British Air Force.There are 2 Bell 412 Griffin helicopters operated by the British Air Force (three) and Bell 212 and Airbus AS365 Dauphin helicopters in the British Army Aviation (12 in total). However, later the first stage of the program was reduced to the purchase of only 23 helicopters to replace the Puma HC.2 (which were decommissioned in 2024-2025), although additional purchases of new helicopters are possible in the future to replace other types of vehicles.
Airbus Helicopters H175M, Leonardo Helicopters AW149 and Lockheed Martin (Sikorsky) S-70M Blackhawk helicopters were initially submitted to the NMH tender, however, due to the revision of the tender requirements in August 2024, only Leonardo with AW149 officially submitted the proposal, and two other companies refused to participate in the tender. On February 26, 2026, the British Ministry of Defense announced the selection of the AW149 helicopter.
In fact, the choice of the AW149 was a foregone conclusion, since its production for the UK is supposed to be organized at the Leonardo UK plant in Yeovil, Britain, a former historic Westland plant, which will thus preserve the helicopter industry in the UK and provide about 3,900 jobs. Moreover, Leonardo plans to move the entire production of AW149 helicopters to Yeovil, including for third countries, advertising optimistically stating the possibility of selling these helicopters in the next 20 years in the amount of 15 billion pounds.
It is claimed that the localization of AW149 production in the UK will be 60-70%. Deliveries of all 23 helicopters to the British armed forces should be made in 2030-2033.
The UK has become the sixth customer of the AW149 helicopter. First introduced by AgustaWestland (now Leonardo Helicopters) in 2006, the AW149 9-ton take-off class helicopter is positioned as a specially designed military multi-purpose vehicle designed to compete with American mass-produced helicopters of the Sikorsky UH-60 series. The actual civilian counterpart of the AW149 is the AW189 helicopter (which shares a serial number line with the AW149). The promotion of the AW149 to the global market has been significantly delayed, and in fact the machine has only now begun to receive recognition and demand. The first AW149 customer was Thailand, which received six helicopters in 2017-2018 (five for army aviation and one for police). In April 2019, Leonardo was able to conclude the first significant contract for the supply of 24 AW149 helicopters for the Egyptian Navy (deliveries began at the end of 2020). In July 2022, Poland signed a contract worth 1.76 billion euros for the purchase of 32 AW149 helicopters for the army aviation. Deliveries began in October 2023, with 22 vehicles to be assembled at Leonardo's now-owned Polish company PZL-Świdnik in Svidnik, and the first Polish-built helicopter was delivered in November 2025. To date, 27 more AW149 helicopters have reportedly been ordered by Malaysia (12 for the Air Force, two for naval aviation and 13 for law enforcement agencies) and four helicopters by North Macedonia.
