The Norwegian government terminates an agreement for military helicopters and demands back NOK 5 billion from the supplier NH Industries. The reason is delayed deliveries and problems with errors and maintenance.
The contract with the supplier of NH90 helicopters is terminated and the helicopters are taken out of service with immediate effect, says Minister of Defense Bjørn Arild Gram at a press conference on Friday.
– We have now carried out a thorough assessment of whether it is possible to get a real operational benefit from NH90 by implementing further measures from the defense sector. The conclusion was negative, says Bjørn Arild Gram.
“Lacks important equipment”
The head of defense materiel, Gro Jære, highlights four reasons why the contract is terminated: Delays, that the number of errors in relation to flight hours far exceeds the expected, time-consuming maintenance and such delayed deliveries that some systems have gone out of production.
– The consequence of these four conditions is that today we have fewer helicopters than we would have had. The ones we have fly too little, and several of them lack important equipment. In addition, we are without a plan from the supplier that we have trusted would solve the problems, says Gro Jære at the press conference.
– Then we unfortunately end up in a situation where a termination of the contract is the only defensible alternative.
The Norwegian state is demanding five billion Norwegian kroner back, which has so far been paid for the helicopters.
“Extremely disappointed”
The supplier NH Industries (NATO Helicopter Industries) considers that the termination of the agreement is legally unfounded.
“NH Industries is extremely disappointed with the decision from the Norwegian Ministry of Defense and rejects the accusations against NH90 and the company,” the company wrote in a statement.
In 2001, the Ministry of Defense decided to buy 14 NH90 helicopters from the company. They were to be used for the Coast Guard and for the Norwegian Navy and the delivery was to take place between 2005 and 2008 but was very late.
In 2018, the defense had only received eight of them, of which six could then only be used for training. At the beginning of 2022, one of the 14 ordered helicopters was still missing.