The importance of rotorcraft in military operations is widely recognised as one of the most important VTOL assets/systems. Military rotorcraft act like workhorses of the battlefield, performing a variety of missions such as armed reconnaissance, strike, combat, combat and ordinary search-and-rescue (SAR), MEDical EVACuation (MEDEVAC), CASualty EVACuation (CASEVAC), utility, air assault and close aerial support, all of which are critical to the success of military operations.

After decades of European involvement in counter-insurgency type of operations, recent conflicts have marked the return of high-intensity confrontations very close to European Union territory, recalling that although military helicopters are key assets, they require careful mission planning and operations to be efficient and survivable.

On the longer term, rotorcraft is foreseen to be even more critical as future combat theatres are likely to take place in congested urban environment, mostly in littoral regions, and to involve a wide range of long-range strike capabilities (artillery, short range ballistic missiles) combined with a shortened OODA loop made possible by the massive global deployment of networked C4ISR assets.

Current capability forecast assessments at European and NATO levels show that the helicopter fleets will have to be renewed as of 2035-2040. The main objective is therefore to provide the EU Member States and EDF Associated Countries with a European solution that meets the European market and military needs in the field of rotorcraft.

Specific objective

This topic is intended to lead to a step improvement in EU VTOL capability with a view to future EU/NATO rotorcraft programmes (EIS 2035/2040+). Moreover, developed technologies should also be used for upgrades of legacy platforms, where applicable.

Scope:

Proposals must address future technologies and rotorcraft architectures with a view to the launch of a new European collaborative capability development programme in the field of next generation rotorcraft by 2030.

Types of activities

The following table lists the types of activities which are eligible for this topic, and whether they are mandatory or optional (see Article 10(3) EDF Regulation):

Accordingly, the proposals must cover at least the following tasks as part of the studies and design mandatory activities:

• Assess adequate elements and criteria underpinning the convergence towards a single vehicle architecture and assess the related operational concepts for high performance military VTOL platforms, including;
  • Fundamental work on EU defence community needs as provided by EU Member States and EDF Associated Countries, with a special focus on logistics, serviceability and training;
  • Assessment of the preliminary technical specifications, concept studies and sizing for major sub-systems (including, but not limited to, propulsion, core avionics, mission system(s), role equipment and general systems);
  • Feasibility analysis and preliminary requirements review (PRR) of rotorcraft architectures to confirm the technical, programmatic, industrial and market feasibility of the solution(s), with a view to further development and industrialisation and production phases;
  • Rotorcraft design study consisting of an assessment of vehicle architectures, with a maturity target allowing a System Specification Review (SSR);
  • Coordination of technology acquisition efforts to integrate key future capability streams since early concept phase (e.g., modularity, interoperability, interchangeability, manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T), survivability, design-to-cost);
• Address key technologies and system architectures for next generation VTOL platforms up to TRL 4-6, in particular regarding:
  • Design and manufacturing technologies to:
    • Reduce acquisition and upgrade costs, using an EU Modular and Open Rotorcraft System Architecture;
    • Reduce maintenance costs while providing a significantly higher operational and fleet availability than existing helicopters (e.g., utilising mature and already proven solutions wherever possible, harmonised maintenance programme, etc.).
  • Technologies towards lower-emission production and operation, as well as reduced consumption of energy resources;
  • Technologies to improve the operational capability and thus create an operational advantage in the area of:
    • Performance of the platform (e.g., range, endurance/autonomy, payload, speed, manoeuvrability, etc.);
    • Enhanced survivability in contested environments, such as technologies towards minimised signature (e.g., IR, radar, acoustic, visual, etc.);
    • Improved connectivity and interoperability;
    • Adaptability for rapid reconfiguration according to the mission requirements;
    • Improved interchangeability of components between different aircraft configurations and/or between different helicopter operators;
    • Manned-unmanned teaming and automation level to reduce crew workload;
    • Multi-domain (air, land and maritime) capability aspects;
    • Ability to conduct distributed operations to sustain potentially protracted confrontations.
  • Perform ground and flight demonstrations of systems and technologies, relying on technology demonstrators and available assets, as well as on laboratory testing.
  • In terms of programme activities:
    • Prepare the required industrial activities to develop and exploit the military capacity to be selected and the interoperability requirements;
    • Establish the preliminary programme management and the system engineering plans;
    • Establish the overall programme schedule and roadmap, including possible relationships with other projects;
    • Perform a costing evaluation exercise;
    • Perform a market assessment review;
    • Identify risks and constraints related to implementation, costs, schedule, organisation, operations, maintenance, production and disposal;
    • Identify key technological aspects and plan for their maturation within the programme plan;
    • Establish methods to ensure the simplest feasible technical solution to the operational requirement and to establish methods to harmonise and optimise the maintenance programme.
  • In terms of activities related to the operational environment, contribute to:
    • The refinement of a concept of operations (CONOPS) and Main Attributes List provided by the supporting EU Member States and EDF Associated Countries.
    • The definition of the sustainment model (i.e., number of planned flight hours, layout of bases, deployments), in line with guidance from the supporting EU Member States and EDF Associated Countries.
    • The definition of a baseline for aircraft logistic support, in accordance with the supporting EU Member States and EDF Associated Countries provisions.
  • Provide a proposal for a best candidate solution based on a complete value analysis covering performances, costs, risks, modularity, availability, manufacturability, safety, consistency with Member States and EDF Associated Countries operational needs, with jointly defined detailed criteria and hypotheses.

In addition, the proposals must cover at least the following tasks in view of the increasing efficiency mandatory activities:

• Maximise maintenance operations to be performed at operational level and minimise depot level maintenance (with regard to aircraft components and aircraft ground equipment);
• Minimise calendar and flight hour maintenance limits while maximising on-condition maintenance;
• Minimise utilisation of components subject to limitations (e.g., REACH legislation or any other import/export regulation), potentially affecting the procurement of spare parts;
• Implement as many already certified systems and maintenance metrics as possible;
• Provide targeted production and maintenance plans to be worked on at all stages of the development/design phase.

The proposals must substantiate synergies and complementarities with foreseen, ongoing or completed activities in the field of rotorcraft, notably those described in:

• The call topic EDF-2021-AIR-R-NGRT related to Future Operating Environment (FOE) and Future Operating Concepts (FOC) for Next generation rotorcraft technologies.
• The call topic EDF-2021-AIR-D-CAC related to European interoperability standard for collaborative air combat as regards to collaborative air combat and manned-unmanned teaming aspects.
• The call topic EDF-2023-DA-AIR-SPS related to Self-protection systems as regards to survivability aspects.

Moreover:

• projects addressing activities referred to in point (d) above must be based on harmonised defence capability requirements jointly agreed by at least two Member States or EDF associated countries (or, if studies within the meaning of point (c) are still needed to define the requirements, at least on the joint intent to agree on them)
• projects addressing activities referred to in points (e) to (h) above, must be:
  • supported by at least two Member States or EDF associated countries that intend to procure the final product or use the technology in a coordinated manner, including through joint procurement

and

• • based on common technical specifications jointly agreed by the Member States or EDF associated countries that are to co-finance the action or that intend to jointly procure the final product or to jointly use the technology (or, if design within the meaning of point (d) is still needed to define the specifications, at least on the joint intent to agree on them).

For more information, please check section 6.

Functional requirements

The proposed product and technologies should meet the Main Attributes List defined by the supporting EU Member States and EDF Associated Countries and the following functional requirements:

1. Ground rig test, laboratory tests and/or specimen demonstration of:

• The system architecture, based on a maximal proportion of existing system components, modified where applicable to include new interfaces, and combined in a system integration laboratory to test the architectural backbone and system interconnections.
• Critical structural and dynamic components to collect experimental data for preliminary validation activities of design concepts, in support to the rotorcraft architecture assessment.
• Technologies enhancing survivability capacities of structural elements.
• Aerodynamics performances through experimental aerodynamics campaigns to demonstrate aerodynamic effects and behaviours of the platform in various mission conditions.
• Aerodynamic tests on non-linear behaviours to collect de-risking elements on critical aero-elastic effects.
• Technologies supporting the ability to adopt dispersed operations for long time (validation of the technologies developed by simulation).

1. In-flight demonstrator of:

• Interoperability capability to support mid- and long-term compatibility of EU rotorcraft with future multi-domain and air combat collaborative systems and leverage on results from simulation;
• Collaborative combat and MUM-T capacities.

1. In-flight demonstrations of technology bricks, focusing on bricks providing an operational advantage:

• Modular architecture for control system (from pilot inputs to moving surfaces) to be tested at the end of specific design activities;
• Survivability elements to reduce the risk of encounter, detection, acquisition, as well as hit, penetration and kill, such as those induced by self-protection capabilities, in coherence with hardware and/or software solutions already developed in this field, provided that they are made available for testing, even in their simplified configurations and shapes;
• Future on-board energy/power capability and related energy/power management possible architectures.

1. Simulation of technology bricks, focusing on those providing an operational advantage, such as:

• Rotors and rotating controls, in combination with ground demonstrators;
• Technologies supporting the ability to adopt dispersed operations for long time (to be validated in rig-test demonstrator);
• Survivability capabilities linked to low signature/detectability assessment (of various types, e.g., acoustic/dB, radar, IR etc.), connectivity and System of Systems (SoS) capabilities;
• Survivability capability technologies, systems and structures, such as structural protection for ballistic damage tolerance, impact/crash resistance, on-site repairing of ballistic damage, etc.;
• Maintenance, including dispersed maintenance technologies (e.g., non-destructive testing, simplified repair, etc.) and enhanced by the concept of “smart maintenance” to enable predictive maintenance approaches to replace the conventional scheduled tasks with an aircraft tailored maintenance. This new approach relies on the continuous collection and analysis of aircraft data through advanced engineering techniques, empowered by digital-twin technologies and applied-AI techniques;
• Airframe and structural components modularity to allow for fast vehicle re-configuration.
• Control laws impacting platforms manoeuvrability capabilities to be demonstrated through digital tools, such as digital-twin or available ground simulators, and as a consequence, improving survivability potential.

1. Cross-cutting requirements:

• Based on operational scenarios & threat environment 2030+ (i.e., multi-domain connectivity), to be assessed though both studies and virtual simulation as appropriate;
• Affordability, in terms of acquisition and lifecycle costs, including the overall operating costs and maintenance costs (e.g., easier and less labour-intensive maintenance in terms of methods, tools and personnel required) to remain below similar solutions available on the market;
• Operations in hostile environment (e.g., battlefield/federated battlefield simulations) and dispersed maintenance concepts;
• Multi-mission capability and flexibility for operating different kind of military missions and possibly reconfigurable for supporting civilian needs;
• Cargo capability to carry the necessary equipment for the execution of the various missions as required in the CONOPS and Main Attributes List defined by the supporting EU Member States and EDF Associated Countries;
• State-of-the-art development to ensure availability and reliability of the platform and avoid obsolescence concerns;
• Sustainability along the entire product lifecycle: from the conception / production by means of digitalisation up to the product use with reduced environmental footprint due to e.g., advanced propulsion system, low weight and more efficient flight capabilities.

Expected Impact:

The outcomes should contribute to:

• Prepare 2035/2040+ horizon, building European capabilities for new EU/NATO rotorcraft/VTOL programmes, fully compatible to future multi-domain combat collaborative systems.
• Develop technologies and concepts usable for upgrade of legacy platforms, where applicable.
• Support the competitiveness and excellence of the EDTIB, as well as the autonomy and sovereignty of EU and EDF Associated Countries, in the field of military rotorcraft.
• Increase the effectiveness and efficiency of EU Member States and EDF Associated Countries Armed Forces.
• Enhance the strategic autonomy and competitiveness of the EU Member States and EDF Associated Countries and their DTIB willing and able to develop new technologies for inclusion in future EU/NATO rotorcraft programmes.