Airbus Helicopters is planning to expand the facility producing its H160 to cope with demand from the civil market — and the start of production of the type’s military variant, the H160M Guepard.
The H160 entered commercial service in 2022, and there are now more than 50 flying around the world, logging a combined total of more than 15,000 flight hours.
During a media tour of the H160 production facility at Airbus Helicopters’ headquarters in Marignane, France, the type’s head of program, Vincent Chenot, said the line is still ramping up and increasing speed to meet demand. The 100th serial H160 is already on the line.
Up until August, the building was shared with the H175 — but production of the super medium has now been moved to the same building that houses production of the Tiger attack helicopter to clear space for the H160 ramp up.
“But it’s not enough,” said Chenot. “This line is okay for 35 to 40 helicopters per year, and as of today, our intention is to have 60.”
The company is targeting 40 civil deliveries per year, and 20 military — all from the same line. And to accommodate this, it is planning to extend the facility beyond its existing walls.
Combining the civil and military lines will allow the type to be “resilient to market fluctuations,” said Chenot.
Militarization of the Guepards on the final assembly line will start at the very beginning of the process, as the Army requires the type’s airframe to cope with 25 percent more load than a civilian aircraft — and the Navy requires 20 percent more load than the Army. So the basic aircraft needs reinforcement to cope with this.
The electrical system is also different, due to the need to accommodate a lot more radios, navigation systems, and mission system sensors.
The first serial H160M should appear on the line in 2027.
The oil-and-gas sector is one of the main markets for the H160, which made its debut in the field in 2024 with PHI in the Gulf of Mexico. It has also performed oil-and-gas flights in Brazil, and Chenot said the type will start performing the work in other regions of the world “in the coming weeks.”
The H160 has also proved popular for private and business aviation, and Airbus believes it will also have a significant market in air medical and public services. It will soon make its debut in the latter with a delivery to the French Gendarmerie.
For the last two years, the French Navy has been using six civilian H160s for search-and-rescue operations. The service is, in fact, the global H160 fleet leader in terms of flight hours, and among the operators to have undergone a 900-hour inspection.
“The feedback we receive from the 160s currently in service is excellent,” said Chenot. “It performs as we planned, which is a very, very good sign.”
