Press Release 12/01/30

MTR390-E growth variant engine certified to power the Tiger HAD helicopter

Hallbergmoos (30 January 2012) - MTU Turbomeca Rolls-Royce ITP GmbH, known as MTRI, announced that the MTR390-E engine has been certified by France, Germany and Spain to power the new HAD (Hélicoptère d'Appui Destruction) variant of the Tiger helicopter.

The MTR390-E provides a 14 per cent power increase over the existing MTR390 2C engine, to further enhance the performance of the Tiger under demanding flight conditions, such as  missions in ‘hot and high’ environmental conditions.

The engineering challenge for the development of the enhanced engine was to keep the installation envelope and interfaces of the existing 2C engine to enable existing helicopter applications to upgrade to the enhanced engine. The support activities have focused on the integration of the new engine version into the maintenance and service concept for the existing 2C engine, including the provision of technical publications and customer tooling.
The MTR390-E is the most advanced military turboshaft engine in its class. The delivery of production engines to the Eurocopter build line has started and an initial batch of 150 units will be produced for the French, German and Spanish armies represented by the OCCAR Tiger Division (ODT).

France and Spain will take delivery of their new HAD Tigers equipped with the new MTR390-E engines starting late 2012. The integration of the Enhanced engine into the UHT (Germany) is planned to start in 2013.

Including all Tiger orders from France (HAP), Germany (UHT), Spain (HAP) and Australia (ARH) a total of approximately 450 MTR390 2C and Enhanced engines including spares are covered by production orders.

With the excellent reliability of the 2C engine and the compact power to weight ratio the MTR390 engine family is well positioned for the military export markets.