At the Doha International Maritime Defence Exhibition and Conference (DIMDEX) 2024, the Qatar Emiri Air Force (QEAF) and Leonardo celebrated the 2,500 flight hours of the NH90 helicopter fleet. This milestone has been made possible through strategic cooperation, which has been aided by Leonardo’s direct involvement in providing training and supporting maintenance operations.

The Qatar Emiri Air Force is one of the NH90 end users that operates both the TTH (Tactical Troop Transport) and the NFH (Naval Frigate Helicopter) versions of the helicopter for land and naval operations. The aircraft’s main missions include troop transport and utility, search and rescue, and surveillance.

Since the first delivery in 2018, the QEAF has received 18 helicopters, out of the total of 28 helicopters ordered, nine TTH helicopters built at the assembly line of Marignane (Airbus) and nine NFH helicopters built at the final assembly line of Venice (Leonardo).

Leonardo is the prime contractor for the overall programme and is also responsible for the final assembly and delivery of the NH90 NFH helicopters from its production facility in Tessera, Venice. Leonardo also provides on- site support to the Air Force, including engineers, skilled technicians, logistics specialists, and instructors.

The company has also built the Training Centre located at Doha Air Base, which includes two Full Flight Simulators (FFS) in naval and land versions, developed in collaboration with CAE, as well a variety of other systems covering the flight and the mission training requirements.

Since entry to service in June 2023 close to 1,700 hours have been flown on the Full Flight Simulators in cooperation with the military instructors of the Italian Armed Forces.