Four new military helicopters purchased for Air Corps in deal worth almost €100m
The Government has signed a deal worth almost €100 million for the purchase of four new military helicopters.
The new Airbus H145m aircraft will replace and expand the Air Corps’ small fleet of light utility helicopters. The services’s two existing EC135 helicopters are approaching the end of their service life and are due to be scrapped in 2027.
The Air Corps will take delivery of the new aircraft from Airbus sometime early in 2027 in a deal worth €91.7 million plus VAT.
The primary role of the four new helicopters will be training new pilots before they move on to larger aircraft or flying helicopters for the Garda Air Support Unit.
However, the H145s will also be capable of “intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and light combat capabilities”, the Department of Defence said. They will be capable of supporting Army, naval and Air Corps operations and will be particularly useful for transporting and inserting personnel from the Army Ranger Wing, the Defence Forces elite special forces unit.
They will also come fitted with advanced surveillance technology, including electro-optical and thermal-imagery features not available on the existing helicopters.
There are also plans for the acquisition of larger helicopters, known as super medium helicopters, to replace the Air Corps fleet of six AgustaWestland AW139 aircraft.
A major challenge for the Defence Forces will be finding enough pilots and technicians to fly and service its new aircraft. Like the rest of the military, the Air Corps’ abilities to carry out missions has been significantly hampered by an exodus of trained personnel to the private sector in recent years.
The Air Corps currently has 677 personnel, well below its establishment strength of 886.
In terms of LOA 2 capabilities for the Air Corps, a number of projects are currently being progressed under the Air Corps Aircraft Renewal and Replacement Programmes. The delivery of a third Airbus C-295 aircraft (in Military Transport specification) is scheduled for September 2025; and a contract was also awarded in 2024 for the provision of four Airbus H145M light-utility multi-role helicopters, with deliveries due to begin in 2027. In addition to these procurements, further rotary wing capability will be the subject of a future procurement process beginning in the near term.
