Ready for any mission

Military Helicopters

Throughout the history of flight, armed forces around the world have benefitted from the military aircraft designed and manufactured by Leonardo’s UK aeronautics engineering excellence. Our AW101 Merlin and AW159 Wildcat military helicopters are currently performing a wide range of multi-role and naval operations for the British Army and the Royal Navy.

AW149: Versatility for the most demanding missions

AW149: Versatility for the most demanding missions

Military helicopters must be equipped to perform the most demanding missions in the harshest operating environments. The AW149 is the latest generation medium multi-role battlefield platform that delivers the highly effective and survivable capability required by today’s armed forces, combining advanced technologies, equipment and weapons with unparalleled safety and performance characteristics.

AW159 Multi-Role Land and Naval Helicopter

The AW159 twin-engine multi-mission military helicopter is capable of autonomous detection, identification and attack of Land and Naval targets, featuring state-of-the-art avionics and mission systems for excellent crew situational awareness, along with complete suite of self-protection measures facilitating rapid tactical assessment in any theatre of operations.

AW159 Multi-Role Land and Naval Helicopter

AW101: The Superior Solution

AW101: The Superior Solution

The AW101 is the most advanced, versatile and capable multi-role helicopter available today, featuring sophisticated avionics and mission systems, coupled with long range and endurance. It provides operational persistence for all missions.

Integrated Operational Support

Leonardo provides Integrated Operational Support for the Wildcat, Merlin and Apache AH Mk.1 military helicopter fleets of the UK Armed Forces, as well as the AW101 SAR helicopters for the Royal Norwegian Air Force. Our comprehensive support and maintenance services improve the levels of operational output while delivering continuous improvement to reduce through life costs.

Integrated Operational Support

Wildcat Training Centre: a decade of training AW159 personnel for the frontline

Wildcat Training Centre: a decade of training AW159 personnel for the frontline

For over a decade, Leonardo has successfully delivered training for the British military’s AW159 ‘Wildcat’ pilots, aircrew and ground personnel. The Wildcat Training Centre (WTC), based at RNAS Yeovilton, is a world-leading training establishment that leverages a multitude of advanced synthetic training solutions for optimum training outcomes.

Insights

In a Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief (HADR) mission, time is of the essence – whether that’s a rapid reaction to rescue people, gaining situational awareness through reconnaissance/establishing communications or through the delivery of vital first supplies, like water.

In the first of a two-part series, we look at how the Leonardo AW149 multi-role helicopter was designed with battlefield survivability in mind, with a focus on the airframe’s crashworthiness and minimised susceptibility to enemy fire, in addition to its unparalleled gearbox run dry capability.

In part 2, we explain how a reduced exhaust Infrared signature, next generation Defensive Aids System and external weapons options will protect the aircrew and aircraft by avoiding detection and engagement in the most severe operational environments.

Leonardo supported the UK Carrier Strike Group, featuring our AW159 Wildcat and AW101 Merlin helicopters. Connor Flavell explains how he supported the AW101 on-board the CSG’s Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier.

The mighty Merlin started 2022 in a strong position as Leonardo celebrated several key milestones across customer programmes at the end 2021, including the AW101 global fleet reaching the 500,000 flight hours milestone.

Leonardo’s Full Ice Protection System (FIPS) has proved itself an outstanding enabler of all-weather helicopter flying, having undertaken more than 20,000 flight hours during the past five years.

With the AW101 SAR Queen transforming the All-Weather Search and Rescue (SAR) capability of the Royal Norwegian Air Force, one member of the 330 Squadron provides first-hand insight into how the helicopter is taking SAR capability to a new level.

Through its role as strategic partner to the UK MOD and one of the UK's leading equipment suppliers to the UK armed forces, Leonardo was proud to support the CSG, comprising 9 ships, 32 helicopters and jet aircraft, and 3,700 sailors, aviators and marines.

The AW159 Wildcat and AW101 Merlin form part of the Royal Navy air carrier group, keeping watch over the new carriers and the surrounding seas, ensuring the ship and its crew are well protected from enemy submarines, surface ships, aircraft and missiles.