DOPPELADLER.COM

Defence officials have whittled down the number of bidders for the UK’s New Medium Helicopter (NMH) contest to four companies following an initial selection process.

Airbus Helicopters, Boeing, Leonardo Helicopters and Sikorsky all successfully passed the dynamic pre-qualification questionnaire (DPQQ) issued to interested parties by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), FlightGlobal can reveal. Bidders were informed of their progress on 31 October.

None of the manufacturers wished to comment, save to confirm that they had cleared the DPQQ stage.

The UK could buy as few as 23 aircraft through its New Medium Helicopter (NMH) contest, FlightGlobal can reveal – a dramatic reduction on the up to 44 units originally envisaged for the programme and a total that exactly matches the size of one of the four fleets the platform was meant to replace.