Jane Edwards
Defense ministers from France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the U.K. and the Netherlands will allocate approximately $28 million in funding to explore novel platforms for their future helicopters under NATO’s Next Generation Rotorcraft Capability project.
The six allies will work with industry to study open systems architecture, hybrid and electric propulsion and other options as they align their requirements with the latest technologies available on the market, NATO said Thursday.
NGRC is one of the alliance’s High Visibility projects and seeks to establish a multinational framework that will allow participants to collaborate on the design, construction and delivery of a new medium multirole helicopter that will replace existing assets by 2035.
In November 2020, a letter of intent was signed by five allies to launch the NGRC initiative.
In June, the Netherlands participated in the project. Defense ministers from the six countries signed a memorandum of understanding to introduce the NGRC project’s concept stage, which will be carried out by the NATO Support and Procurement Agency.
