The new features of the NH90 helicopters from the second batch of the Spanish Navy

In recent days we have had some news about the NH90 helicopters of the Spanish Navy's Air Fleet (FLOAN).

The 14th Squadron of the Spanish Navy receives its third NH90 MSPT helicopter
Spain buys 100 military helicopters from Airbus, including 50 H145Ms for the FAMET

As we already saw here, last Friday the Spanish Navy announced the delivery of the third NH90 MSPT of the 14th Squadron, the HT.29–42 (10348, 01-14-04). The first two, the HT.29-40 (10346, 01-14-02) and the HT.29-41 (10347, 01-14-03), were delivered to the Spanish Navy in May. These three helicopters are part of a batch of seven. The remaining four aircraft will be delivered to the 14th Squadron in 2026.

Furthermore, Airbus announced Spain's purchase of 100 military helicopters from the European company, the largest purchase of this type of aircraft made by Spain to date. This purchase includes 31 new NH90 helicopters, 6 of which will be for the Navy. With this second batch, the Spanish Navy's NH90 fleet will consist of 13 units.

Last Sunday, Naval News published an interesting video about the Spanish Navy's NH90s, in which the editor of that website specializing in defense news, Xavier Vavasseur, interviews the commander of the 14th Squadron, Commander Javier Moreno, a few days before the delivery of the unit's third NH90. The video shows the inside of one of the NH90 MSPTs:

In the video, the commander of the 14th Squadron comments that "flying the NH90 is really fun. It's a very very capable helicopter." He also acknowledges one of the drawbacks that other operators have criticized in this aircraft: "It is true that the aircraft requires a lot of maintenance. A lot of maintenance, so pilots are adjusting to the new aircraft, but the maintenance staff are also adjusting to their new role."

The commander of the 14th Squadron points out some new features of the second batch of six NH90 helicopters that the Spanish Navy will receive. Three of these correspond to the French Army's NH90 Standard 2 for special operations. The first is the Safran Group's Eurofl'Eye Distributed Aperture System (DAS), which includes six infrared cameras that provide the pilot with better visibility in difficult flying conditions (snow, dust, or fog) day and night.

This system is mounted in the nose of the helicopter, beneath the prominent radome that houses a multifunction radar capable of low-altitude terrain following. Just Safran Group announced yesterday that Eurofl'Eye "will initially be deployed on French and Spanish NH90 TTH helicopters" (TTH is Airbus's designation for the tactical transport version of the NH90, to which all Spanish helicopters of this type belong).

Another important innovation will be the Safran Euroflir 410 electro-optical system (EOS), located in the nose, below the Eurofl'Eye DAS, and capable of detecting and identifying threats at a distance of several kilometers. This system is integrated into a spherical, directional display that incorporates 10 laser and digital video sensors, including NIR (Near Infrared), SWIR (Shortwave Infrared), MWIR (Medium Wave Infrared), LRF (Laser Rangefinder), illuminator, and laser pointer. The information generated by the DAS and the EOS is transmitted to the pilot via a new HMSD-DD helmet, which will likely also be delivered to the Spanish Navy with the second batch of NH90s.

Finally, the third major innovation of the Spanish Navy's second batch of NH90 MSPT helicopters will be that gunners can be positioned in the rear window of the helicopter. This is another change required by France for its special operations version of this helicopter. This issue has been one of the NH90's disadvantages for years compared to the UH-60 Black Hawk, its main American competitor, which has included gunner positions directly behind the pilots' seats since its inception.

In the NH90 Standard 2, these positions are located at the rear, as the aircraft's troop doors open forward. The new gunner positions in the NH90 Standard 2 are in larger windows, since the current rear windows of these helicopters are too small and cannot be opened. With this change, the NH90 MSPTs of the second batch will free up space in those doors, as currently the gunners have to be positioned there in all the NH90s already operational in Spain. The problem is that the new positions obstruct access via the rear ramp. This is the drawback of not having included these gunner positions in the initial design of the NH90.

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Main photo: Armada Española. The Spanish Navy's NH90 MSPT HT.29-41 (10347, 01-14-03), one of the two units delivered in May 2025 by Airbus.