NSPA Requests Preliminary Design Proposals for NATO's Next Generation Rotorcraft
Luxembourg, 31 July 2026
Key points
- The NATO Support and Procurement Agency issued a request for proposals for the Next Generation Rotorcraft Capability concept-design phase on 31 July
- Four pre-qualified teams are invited: Airbus Helicopters (with MBDA, Collins and Raytheon), Leonardo (with Bell, a tilt-rotor entry), Sikorsky (with BAE Systems, ESG and Rheinmetall, an X2 coaxial entry) and Boeing
- Each team may propose up to two concept-design solutions, plus an offer for de-risking activities to mature the chosen concept; proposals are due by 31 August 2027
- Six nations participate — France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada and the United Kingdom; Greece has withdrawn
- Requirement: a medium multi-role helicopter for 12–16 equipped troops, ship-capable, to replace NH90 and H225M classes in the 2035–2040 horizon
NSPA issued its request for proposals for NATO's Next Generation Rotorcraft Capability concept-design phase on 31 July, inviting four industry teams — Airbus Helicopters, Leonardo, Sikorsky and Boeing — to submit by August 2027.
NGRC is the programme meant to succeed the NH90 and H225M medium multi-role helicopter classes once they begin retiring from the mid-2030s, and the six participating nations — France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada and the United Kingdom, after Greece's withdrawal — have set a baseline requirement rather than a fixed design: 12 to 16 equipped troops, ship-capable, built to fold in advances in technology and production methods that were not available when the NH90 was designed. The RFP does not select an airframe. It asks each of the four pre-qualified teams for up to two concept-design solutions and a plan for the de-risking work needed to mature whichever concept advances, with NSPA due to deliver a synthesis to the six nations by the end of 2027.
The field already signals the range of answers on offer: Leonardo has paired with Bell on a tilt-rotor entry, and Sikorsky with BAE Systems, ESG and Rheinmetall on an X2 coaxial-rotor design, against Airbus Helicopters' more conventional configuration backed by MBDA, Collins and Raytheon, and Boeing entering independently. A tilt-rotor and a coaxial design compete on the same requirement as a conventional single-main-rotor helicopter — a wider architectural spread than most NATO capability competitions carry into concept design.
This is a design-maturation step, not a procurement decision. As Signal No. 126 recorded, NSPA's synthesis at end-2027 will tell the six nations which concepts are worth funding into further development, not which one flies; a decade separates this RFP from the fielding date the requirement targets. The observable between now and August 2027 is whether all four teams submit, since a withdrawal at concept-design stage — as Greece's exit from the nation group already shows on the buyer side — would narrow NATO's architectural options before any of them has been flown.
