THE HAGUE - The delivery of the final 7 Dutch NH90 navalized NATO frigate helicopters (NFH90s) has resumed following an agreement between the manufacturer and the Netherlands Ministry of Defense. Deliveries had been suspended on June 27, 2014, after the Netherlands' Defense Minister Jeannine Hennis-Plasschaert informed the Dutch parliament of corrosion issues affecting the operation of the Royal Netherlands Navy's (RNN) two in-service NFH90s.
The first NFH90 operationally deployed was assigned to the EU Naval Force's counter-piracy 'Operation Atalanta' in the first half of 2013. A second unit was deployed to the Caribbean in the latter half of the same year.
The Netherlands has ordered 20 NFH90s to be used primarily for anti-submarine warfare, but with eight coming in the Maritime Tactical Transport Helicopter (MTTH) configuration for greater utility. Most of the units already delivered arrived in Medium Operational Capability (MOC) configuration and therefore must be upgraded to Full Operational Capability (FOC) configuration. Plans are in place to have this process completed by January 2018. The solving of the current delivery impasse - thanks to a so-called Roadmap agreement between the Netherlands and the manufacturer - should make that target date achievable.
Under the agreement the manufacturer has identified 100 points of issue regarding the Dutch NFH90s and corrected 75 of them. Solutions to the remaining 25 issues will be explored while undertaking a broad maintenance examination and upgrade of a lone Dutch NFH90 in early 2015.
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