Airbus Helicopters is looking at developing a new version its Tiger attack helicopter, known as the Tiger Mk3.
On 31 July, the Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (OCCAR) signed on behalf of France, Germany and Spain a contract with Airbus Helicopters TIGER for an Architecture Study with the aim to define the so-called “Tiger Mk3” - the future configurations materialising the Mid-Life Upgrade (MLU) of the TIGER (EC665) weapon system.
The shared goal of the nations is to ensure that the Tiger remains at the cutting edge of attack helicopters in the world over the next decades. Australia is the fourth operator of the helicopter, with 22 currently in service.
"France, Germany, Spain and OCCAR are working together with Australia to establish a common cooperative framework to be used for the future preparation and development of Mk3."
This first building block of the MLU roadmap will enable Airbus to explore and select all promising new features and improvements to make the Tiger even better, in various areas such as maintainability, survivability or operability, with a strong focus on life cycle cost.
It will benefit both from the lessons learned in several operational theatres (TIGER has been permanently deployed since more than 6 years) and from the latest technologies available or under development.
The study will allow nations to choose which combinations of equipments, functions, performances and architectures should be selected for the future development phase of the TIGER weapon system to be delivered within the next decade.
All Mk3 requirements have been developed and harmonised commonly between the OCCAR Participating States and the Commonwealth of Australia to maximise the cost-effectiveness of the MLU programme. Furthermore France, Germany, Spain and OCCAR are working together with Australia to establish a common cooperative framework to be used for the future preparation and development of Mk3.
The Tiger MLU is at the centre of OCCAR through-life management strategy to manage cooperative defence equipment with a long term vision.