StandardAero wins major UK role building engines for New Medium Helicopter

StandardAero has secured a major role in the UK’s £1 billion New Medium Helicopter (NMH) programme, with its Gosport facility selected by GE Aerospace to build and support the engines powering Britain’s future AW149 fleet.

The agreement goes considerably further than an aftermarket support contract. StandardAero will assemble the CT7-2E1 engines in the UK, before providing maintenance and overhaul support throughout their service lives.

Crucially for the UK industrial base, Gosport will also handle engines destined for future AW149 export customers where aircraft are built in Britain.

Gosport takes central role in NMH

Leonardo is supplying 23 AW149 helicopters to the Ministry of Defence, powered by 46 CT7-2E1 engines, alongside spares. The aircraft are due to be delivered between 2030 and 2033.

The StandardAero award builds on an established capability at Gosport, which has provided depot-level maintenance, repair and overhaul for GE Aerospace’s T700 and CT7 engine families since 1986.

It also adds NMH to a growing portfolio of frontline UK military helicopter work.

The site already undertakes airframe work for the RAF’s Chinook fleet, while StandardAero secured an extension earlier this year covering logistics, technical support and engine and component maintenance for the T700-GE-T701D engines powering the British Army’s Apache AH-64E helicopters.

Simon Jones, managing director of UK operations at StandardAero, said the new programme expands the company’s support across “Chinook, Apache and now the New Medium Helicopter platform”.

StandardAero’s relationship with the UK Ministry of Defence at Gosport dates back to 1940. The company said the new work is also expected to sustain skilled employment at the site.

UK workshare extends beyond the helicopter

The engine award strengthens the domestic industrial content of NMH at a time when the government is placing greater emphasis on using defence spending to support sovereign capability, skills and exports.

Leonardo’s wider agreement with the MOD places Yeovil at the centre of its military helicopter production and export strategy, with UK workshare above 40%. The government estimates the programme will sustain 3,300 jobs in Yeovil and support a supply chain of almost 70 companies.

StandardAero is one part of that network. Barnes Aerospace in Newton Abbot will manufacture components for the CT7-2E1, while GE Aerospace is also using its UK facilities in Cheltenham, Cardiff, Prestwick and Gloucester to support the programme.

For Gosport, however, the prize is particularly significant. Rather than simply supporting an imported propulsion system once it enters service, the facility becomes part of the production, sustainment and potential export chain for the UK’s next generation of medium-lift military helicopters.