Overview
- Airbus Helicopters detailed two interoperable medium‑lift designs—a conventional helicopter and a high‑speed compound rotorcraft—developed with RTX’s Collins Aerospace and Raytheon units, and MBDA.
- Both concepts are built around a Modular Open Systems Architecture to streamline maintenance and training, standardize weapons and mission systems, and simplify future upgrades.
- The designs are intended to support crewed–uncrewed teaming, resilient connectivity, cybersecurity protections, and multi‑domain collaborative operations.
- The high‑speed compound concept draws on X3 and Racer demonstrators, with military pilot evaluations cited for validating higher speeds and rapid climb and descent performance.
- The submissions advance NATO’s NGRC concept study launched in July 2024, to be assessed alongside Sikorsky and Leonardo proposals, with potential operational entry targeted for 2035–2040.