Sea Tiger completes flight tests
November 12, 2024
Airbus Helicopters announced at Euronaval 2024, that the NH Industries NH90 Sea Tiger has completed its flight test campaign. The type logged more than 140 flying hours over the past 11 months, and all of the helicopter’s capabilities have been confirmed. The first delivery to the German Navy is scheduled for the end of next year.
The Sea Tiger was tested against a variety of operational scenarios and exercised the aircraft’s mission system, targeting systems, and sensors, including sonar, electro-optical turret and weaponry, operating in the Mediterranean from Marignane, taking advantage of the deep water essential for fully testing the sonar, before moving to Nordholz.
The aircraft flew with attached torpedoes to check that the weapon communicated correctly with the helicopter’s mission system, and to perform a series of manoeuvrability and flight limit tests with external loads. Flights were also undertaken with MBDA’s MARTE ER anti-surface missile, a weapon already qualified on Qatar’s NH90s.
The Sea Tiger MRFH (Multi-Role Frigate Helicopter) is the latest version of the NH90 NFH (NATO frigate helicopter), optimised for anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, with a new mission system, including a new electro-optical system and enhanced electronic support measures, a Thales’s FLASH SONICS dipping sonar, active and passive acoustic sonobuoys, and a variety of weapons (including torpedoes and missiles). The aircraft can also undertake reconnaissance, search and rescue, and transport missions. It is intended as a replacement for the Sea Lynx Mk88A, operating from the German Navy’s frigates, and 31 helicopters were ordered in 2020 at a cost of €2.7 billion (US $2.89 billion).
The German navy already operates 18 NH90 Sea Lion naval transport helicopters, which were delivered between 2019 and 2023.
