ROME \u2014 The U.K. will hand Leonardo a \u00a31 billion ($1.34 billion) contract to build 23 AW149 helicopters at the firm\u2019s Yeovil plant in the U.K., the British Ministry of Defense said on Monday, ending months of uncertainty over the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The deal for the medium-lift helicopters will help save 3,300 jobs at Yeovil \u2014 the U.K.\u2019s last helicopter manufacturing facility \u2014 the ministry said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThousands of skilled British jobs have been secured with a major helicopter deal that will boost the U.K. Armed Forces\u2019 battlefield kit and makes Britain Leonardo\u2019s global centre for military helicopter production and exports,\u201d the ministry claimed in a statement on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Italy\u2019s Leonardo, which operates Yeovil, previously said that if the much-delayed deal was called off amid funding uncertainty, the site risked closure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In its statement, the defense ministry added that since Yeovil was now tasked with building the U.K. order of the AW149, export orders would follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are around 20 countries with requirements for new medium-lift helicopters (NMH). Together with Leonardo\u2019s other helicopters, international orders for NMH\u202fcould\u202fgenerate over \u00a315 billion in exports over the next 10 years,\u201d the ministry said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 3,300 jobs secured by keeping Yeovil open included 650 working on the NMH and others involved in support for the U.K.\u2019s Merlin and Wildcat helicopter fleets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That added to 12,000 supply chain jobs in the U.K., said Nigel Colman, Managing Director of Helicopters U.K., Leonardo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The deal to keep Yeovil open appears to have been helped by the work underway there on Leonardo\u2019s unmanned rotary wing platform Proteus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe \u00a31 billion deal will also make Yeovil the centre of excellence for military helicopter autonomy, as the Ministry of Defence invests further in Proteus \u2014 the UK\u2019s first autonomous uncrewed air system which is built by Leonardo and recently undertook its first flight,\u201d the ministry said, adding that the platform has \u201cdemonstrated it can conduct a range of missions including anti-submarine warfare.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ministry added, \u201cThe development of uncrewed and autonomous technology in the U.K. is at the heart of the government\u2019s Defence Industrial Strategy and could offer the opportunity to make platforms such as NMH optionally-crewed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Defence Secretary John Healey called the deal, \u201ca major vote of confidence in British industry, British\u202fworkers\u202fand British innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
British officials have portrayed the contract as the beginning of a renaissance for British helicopter manufacturing, crewed and uncrewed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":120447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":46,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[7,160,46,11,36],"tags":[8616],"coauthors":[3345],"class_list":["post-72234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-daily-news-roundup","category-europe","category-global","category-newsletters","tag-italy"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"DISTD5X5R5DINAP3CLLDMR2KBI","arc_canonical_url":"\/global\/europe\/2026\/03\/02\/uk-taps-leonardo-for-13-billion-medium-lift-helicopter-deal\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n