Delay of more than two years in delivery of transport helicopters

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"As far as we are concerned, this would be ready for delivery by the end of the year, but it is not up to us alone", sighs Jukka Holkeri, director at the state armaments and aircraft industry company Patria at the Jämsä assembly hall, as he stands in front of an NH90 helicopter with camouflage paint. The KH-202 is the first of the 20 helicopters ordered by the Finnish Defence Forces, costing a total of EUR 350 million. So far it has had fewer than ten hours of test flying.
      Finland put in an order for transport helicopters in 2001. At that time, the first of the aircraft were to have been delivered in October 2004. In the same year three more helicopters were to have been delivered, and the last was to come in 2008.
     
Patria is assembling 18 of the helicopters ordered by Finland. The first of them was to have been ready in the autumn of 2005.
      It has still not been delivered.
      "If everything goes forward as promised from here on, we will get the first helicopter built by Patria in April next year", says Colonel Mika Soininen, who is responsible for the project at the Defence Staff. Finland's first NH90 is to be assembled at the Eurocopter factory in France, where it is expected to remain for training purposes.
     
Nothing has proceeded according to plan. Holkeri, an aircraft engineer by training, says that there is no single reason for the delays.
      "Reports of bad vibration problems are not true. There is no such thing as a helicopter that does not vibrate, but there have been no problems in this", Holkeri says.
      There have not been any other great technical problems either. However, one difficulty invovles the thoroughly complicated and typically European industrial complexity.
      There are many cooks hovering around this particular kettle of soup: Finland ordered its NH helicopter from NH Industries, which is owned by the German and French company Eurocopter, the Italian Agusta, and the Dutch Stork. Patria, for its part, is selling its assembly services to the Eurocopter.
     
There are a total of 12 countries who are buying the model, and they all want slight alterations to suit their particular needs. This, combined with the bureaucracy surrounding the arms trade, sometimes brings strange results in production.
      The Patria Aerostructures unit is manufacturing the rear sections of at least 150 NH90 helicopters out of composite structures. This includes the helicopters ordered by Finland and Sweden. However, the bodies are to be taken by lorry first to Italy, from there to France, and from there back to Jämsä, because the helicopter is classified as a weapon, and an export licence has been acquired for delivery from France to Finland.
      Another delaying factor has been the approval process. The NH is a highly modern aircraft, and its design is a process that continues all the time. The constant changes have made the type approval an overwhelming task for the military aviation officials.
      The first type approval is to come from Germany, possibly in November. Finland will not even start its own approval process before that.
      The Defence Forces are to be compensated for the delay. The Ministry of Defence says that the fines for the delay are expected to reach about EUR 16 million.
     
Both the users and the manufacturers continue to insist that they have faith in the helicopter project. "The copter is undoubtedly good. I do not believe one bit that we have put our money on the wrong horse", Soininen says.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finland and Norway choose NH-90 helicopter (14.9.2001)
  Joint Nordic military helicopter purchase in jeopardy (3.7.2001)
  Sweden finally opts for NH-90 transport helicopter (19.9.2001)
  One-year delay expected in delivery of NH-90 transport helicopters (2.2.2005)

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