AgustaWestland tells ANN that the first Italian Navy serial production NH90 helicopter took to the air last Thursday at AgustaWestland’s Vergiate facility in Italy. The flight lasted 35 minutes.

The NH90 NFH variant is primarily designed for autonomous Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) and Anti Surface Warfare (ASuW) missions. Additional applications include vertical replenishment, maritime patrol, SAR and troop transport. The helicopter is designed for day and night operations in adverse weather, severe-ship-motion environment operations.

The helicopter's weight, dimensions, and particularly its automatic blade and tail folding system allows the NH90 to operate from small frigates.

The Italian Navy has ordered a total of 56 NH90s, ten of which will be configured for tactical transport and 46 for naval operations. Assembly of 150 NH90s is underway at AgustaWestland’s Vergiate facility, including the naval NFH variant for Italian, the Netherlands and Norwegian Navies, as well as the TTH variant for the Italian Army.

AgustaWestland is responsible of the overall integration of the NH90 naval mission system for all NH90 NFH variants.

FMI: www.agustawestland.com, www.marina.difesa.it/ (Italian)