Multi-role helicopters
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As military aviation evolves to embrace operations in support of civilian populations in crisis, utility rotorcraft with the flexibility to quickly repurpose from combat readiness to serving multiple non-combat missions are much in demand. Robin Gauldie reports on the military operators that are aiming to get more years of service out of long-serving types as well as renewing their multi-role fleets

"A significant amount of the medium multi-role assets currently in service… will reach the end of their life cycle in the 2035-40 period and beyond,” the NATO agency reported in a statement profiling its Next Generation Rotorcraft Capability project, which aims to define requirements for a platform to replace the NH90, Puma/Cougar, the Soviet-era Mi-8/17, and the Merlin in the 2030s. Meanwhile, the US military is scheduled to receive the first MV-75 tiltrotor aircraft, part of the US Army’s Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program, in 2030.

Until such new-generation utility aircraft achieve liftoff at scale, though, militaries around the world typically find it makes sense to keep on enhancing their existing fleets, aiming to extend the operating life of large numbers of utility workhorses well into the 2030s.