NHIndustries and Leonardo have completed a major delivery milestone, finalizing the handover of 60 UH-90A TTH multipurpose helicopters to the Italian army. The assembly took place at a production facility near Tessera, the area that serves Venice International Airport. This development was reported by Shepard Media and reflects a broader collaboration among European aerospace leaders to standardize advanced rotorcraft for varied military missions.
The UH-90A is derived from the NH90 program, a project initiated in 1995 by the Franco-German consortium Eurocopter. Following corporate mergers that reshaped the European aviation landscape, Eurocopter became part of the Airbus Group, with Leonardo reassuming a central role in the holding structure. This lineage underscores a long-standing tradition of shared technology and cross-border industrial capability aimed at delivering reliable, interoperable helicopters for international customers.
The Venice-area plant operates as a pivotal assembly hub for NH90 platforms destined for multiple clients, including entities in the Middle East, and it also participates in ongoing modernization efforts for existing fleets. The site’s role underlines how European facilities contribute to lifecycle support—manufacturing, upgrading, and maintaining complex rotorcraft for diverse operational needs.
According to published reports, the UH-90A fleet in Italian service is tasked with a range of roles. These include personnel transport for rapid personnel movement, secure logistics and cargo transportation, medical evacuation and transport, and the transfer of light tactical vehicles needed in field operations. The configuration versatility of the UH-90A makes it suitable for peacetime operations, humanitarian missions, and combat support duties, illustrating how modern helicopters expand a military’s reach and flexibility.
The NH90 family, including the UH-90A variant, offers notable capabilities. It can carry up to 20 soldiers or as much as 2.5 tons of payload. The helicopter is powered by two high-performance engines delivering around 2,000 horsepower total, enabling flight at altitudes up to approximately 2.5 kilometers and cruising speeds near 291 km/h for durations around five hours under typical mission profiles. These specifications position the UH-90A as a workhorse for rapid movement on regional theaters while maintaining endurance for extended missions that demand resilience and reliability.
On the defensive and offensive spectrum, the UH-90A can be outfitted with a range of armaments. Configurations may include air-to-air and air-to-ground guided missiles, as well as unguided rockets, torpedoes, and bombs, depending on mission requirements and threat assessments. This flexibility helps maintain a balanced air-ground profile suitable for border security, amphibious operations, maritime patrols, and other demanding environments where a rotary-wing platform must adapt quickly to evolving scenarios.
Earlier discussions highlighted a disagreement over a long-standing contract related to the NH90 family. Reports noted that Norway terminated a 2001 agreement with Italy concerning NH90 multipurpose helicopters, a deal valued at more than $550 million. The history of the contract, including the order for 14 aircraft originally slated for delivery by 2005, illustrates the cumulative challenges and delays that can accompany large-scale aerospace programs. The first unit from that batch finally arrived in Norway in 2011 and entered service in 2017, a timeline that has influenced subsequent procurement planning and budget allocations for multiple European partners.
Today, the Italian order and its successful completion stand as a testament to sustained industrial collaboration among national aerospace entities across Europe. The program’s evolution—encompassing design origins, procurement, assembly, and modernization—reflects a broader trend toward multi-national defense manufacturing that supports resilience, technology transfer, and long-term capability in North American and European markets.
From a broader perspective, the UH-90A’s development trajectory and delivery outcomes offer useful insights for government buyers and defense planners in Canada and the United States. Operators seeking multipurpose helicopters often weigh payload, endurance, speed, and adaptability against cost and lifecycle support. The lessons embedded in the NH90 family’s deployment—particularly the value of integrated supply chains, cross-border technical collaboration, and the capacity to upgrade fleets without replacing airframes—remain relevant to contemporary procurement strategies in North America and beyond. (Source: Shepard Media)