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Qatar has signed a letter of intent covering the possible acquisition of 22 NH Industries NH90 helicopters in a deal worth around € 2 billion ($ 2.8 billion ).Revealed at the recent Doha International Maritime Defence Exhibition and Conference, the tentative agreement includes the purchase of 12 troop transport variant and 10 TTH NFH navalised model.
NHIndustries NH-90 While Hovering
No timeline has been revealed for the conclusion of negotiations and NH Industries - A three-way consortium comprising Airbus , helicopters AgustaWestland and Fokker - refuses to comment on the deal.
Although the 11t NH90 class has a delay of a little over 300 units according to the database Online Flightglobal Ascend , the guy has struggled to attract more orders and has faced its initial cancellations customers. As such, the Qatar agreement represents significant new business for the type.
Helicopters Airbus revealed in January it was in talks with the Gulf state on a possible order, but industry experts say they did not expect the discussions have progressed so quickly.
If finalized , Qatar became the second customer for the type Middle East with Oman have already ordered four of the TTH variant. So far the program has delivered 186 helicopters, with delivery previsioned 200th for the second quarter.
Moreover, Germany is trying to renegotiate a new helicopters broader engagement, is about to conclude a memorandum of understanding signed last year , which would cut its order for Airbus Tiger Attack helicopters helicopters to 57 of 80 and NH90 TTHS 82 of 122.
It plans to use the near € 1.15 billion of savings to fund the development and acquisition of 18 examples of a new variant of HNF calling "Sea Lion " to replace Westland Lynx and Sea King fleet Navy.
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