France: First upgraded Tiger HAD-F Mk II attack helicopter

On Friday, October 25, 2024, the European Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (Organisation Conjointe de Coopération en Matière d’Armement, OCCAR) announced that the previous day it had delivered the first upgraded Eurocopter EC665 Tiger HAD-F Mk II (Hélicoptère d’Appui Destruction, Support And Destruction Helicopter) attack helicopter to the French Directorate General of Armaments (Direction Générale de l’Armement, DGA), modernized by the European company Airbus Helicopters (part of the Airbus group).

Photos: OCCAR

The ceremony took place at the Airbus Helicopters facility in Marignane, France, located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department. The modernization program for 67 helicopters of the French Army (Armée de Terre) began in December 2015 and is managed by the OCCAR Tiger Programme Division. In 2012, a decision was made to standardize the escort version of the helicopter, Tiger HAP (Hélicoptère d’Appui Protection), to the attack version, Tiger HAD. The work is scheduled to be completed in 2025.

Darren Ash, OCCAR-EA (Executive Administration) Head Of Programmes, addressed the employees of the Airbus helicopter assembly line, telling them how proud they could be of their achievements in building these state-of-the-art helicopters.

The EC665 Tiger HAD-F Mk II helicopters are being equipped with a new, jamming-resistant GNSS GPS satellite navigation system, a new Mode 5 Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) system, and new types of laser-guided air-to-ground weaponry, including AGM-114R2 Hellfire II anti-tank guided missiles. Modifications also include an upgraded information exchange system for interoperability with other components of the network being developed within the French Army.

The Mk II upgrade is also the first step toward the Mk III upgrade, a Mid-Life Upgrade (MLU) for the entire fleet, which will also include the 17 Tiger HAD helicopters of the Spanish Army (Ejército de Tierra). On September 27, 2018, OCCAR commissioned feasibility studies for the Mk III package, in which Germany—operator of 53 Tiger UHT (Unterstützungshubschrauber) helicopters—initially participated. However, due to the low readiness of its fleet, Germany decided to phase out these helicopters and replace them with 82 light attack helicopters under the codename LKH (Leichter Kampfhubschrauber), based on the Airbus H145M (the first unit of which had its maiden flight on September 27 of this year).

As part of the Mk III upgrade, the French units will receive new MAST-F (Missile Air-Sol Tactique Futur) anti-tank guided missiles from the MBDA consortium, which received a contract on November 11, 2020, to develop and deliver 500 missiles. These will be based on the MHT/MLP (Missile Haut de Trame / Missile Longue Portée) architecture, an extended version of the land-based 5th-generation Akeron MP (Moyenne Portée) missile, previously designated as MMP (Missile Moyenne Portée). The Spanish helicopters, on the other hand, are set to receive Israeli Rafael Spike ER anti-tank guided missiles.

The French and Spanish variants will differ slightly to reflect national requirements: upgrades to the mast-mounted electro-optical system, helmet-mounted sighting system, enhanced observation system, radios, and data links enabling interoperability with drones under the MUM-T (Manned-UnManned Teaming) concept, additional weaponry, improved self-defense measures, a new navigation system synchronized with the Galileo satellite navigation system, as well as an updated modular avionics suite. For France, this includes a new tactical data management system, the Atos Scorpion battlefield management system, and Contact communication.

From left to right: Isabel-Rose Humby (Head of HAD variant at Airbus Helicopters), Francisco Ortiz-De-Zarate (Tiger Programme Manager at OCCAR), Darren Ash (Head of Programmes at OCCAR), Ernst Heckert (Head of Tiger Program at Airbus Helicopters), Emmanuel Laporte (DGA/FR Tiger PC representative), Matthieu Fossat (National Programme Coordinator at DGA/FR).