TXT - Safran teams with MTU on joint venture for military helicopters

2023-06-20 13:06:28 ET

France’s Safran ( OTCPK:SAFRF ) ( OTCPK:SAFRY ) and Germany’s MTU Aero Engines ( OTCPK:MTUAF ) ( OTCPK:MTUAY ) on Tuesday said at the Paris Air Show that they signed a memorandum of understanding on forming a joint venture to develop a new engine for a next-generation military helicopter.

The European Commission’s defense fund last year picked the EU Next-Generation Rotorcraft Technologies (ENGRT) project as one of 61 programs to receive funding for research and development. The goal is to create a military helicopter that would enter service by 2040.

“The engine design will be perfectly adaptable to the future helicopter requirements, while incorporating breakthrough technologies such as hybrid-electric propulsion,” Cédric Goubet, CEO of Safran Helicopter Engines, said in a statement. “It will be one of the most important collaborative programs in the history of European defense.”

The European initiative comes as branches of the U.S. military aim to update their helicopter fleets with the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) and the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) programs.

For the FLRAA program, the U.S. Army last year chose Textron’s ( TXT ) Bell V-280 Valor, a tilt-rotor craft that can fly like an airplane and land like a helicopter, to eventually replace the H-60 Black Hawk and AH-64 Apache. The FARA program to replace the Bell OH-58 Kiowa Warrior is ongoing with Bell and Lockheed Martin’s ( LMT ) Sikorsky building prototypes to test.

For further details see: