Sweden wants to replace NH-90, buy additional Blackhawks

[Slater]

Another unhappy customer, evidently:

 

https://www.janes.com/defence-news/air-platforms/latest/swedish-armed-forces-recommends-replacing-nh90-buying-additional-uh-60m-helos

[Boman]

Not surprised

[Mike]

No-one seems to like the poor old NH-90, but in splinter camo with some things hanging off the sides, I think it looks awesome Shame it's no good.

[Slater]

Being dumped in favor of a Disco-era design doesn't speak very well of the NH-90, although I would agree with Admin in that the NH-90 looks rather fetching. 

[Moggy]

Last Sunday I was at a scale model competition in Malmö.

There was a lecture on the NH-90 (Hkp 14 in Swedish Air Force parlance) by a 3rd Helicopter squadron technician/mechanic at Ronneby AFB working on this weapon system.

He had only praise for it.

 

On the other hand, the UH-60 (Hkp 16) was bought for interoperability reasons and as a stop gap only. The way it was bought was contrary to Swedish law, making it politically radioactive (for good reason)

The only people that seem happy with it are the SO grunts.

 

 

Cheers, Moggy

[Slater]

For a stopgap, it seems to be performing reasonably well

[Slater]

The article mentions a new "sea operational helicopter". Is this for the ASW mission?

[exdraken]

swearing removed - read the rules

[Slater]

As has been mentioned previously, Blackhawk is hardly the cutting edge of rotorcraft technology today. But, much like the C-130, it's been around so long that it's a well understood system whose bugs have been sorted years (if not decades) ago.

[Nigel Bunker]

I can see the bean counters at MoD rubbing their hands with glee. "Australia, Norway and Sweden are getting rid of their NH90s so we could buy those cheaply to replace the Pumas. What do you mean they're no good? Not our problem - the RAF can sort the problems out once they are delivered."