Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the expected capabilities are of the Next Generation Rotorcraft Capability project.

Since the signing of the Letter of Intent October 2020, the UK has guided the NATO Next Generation Rotorcraft Capability (NGRC) project through the Pre-Concept stage. Since the signing of the NGRC Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 16 June 2022, the project now moves into the Concept Phase over the next three years.

We expect the NATO NGRC project to ultimately develop a Transformational Next Generation Rotorcraft that will remain relevant against future threats and will be a suitable candidate to replace the current fleet of Medium Helicopters in service with the UK and NATO Allies.

The UK is fully engaged with the NATO NGRC project in order to develop options for potential replacements across the three services.