Spain unifies forces with final Airbus H135 delivery by completing 36-helicopter fleet
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Airbus Helicopters has delivered the final H135 light twin to the Spanish Navy, completing a 36-aircraft order across Spain’s military and security services. The program streamlines training, logistics, and operations while sustaining aerospace jobs in Spain.
Airbus Helicopters announced on its official X account that deliveries of 36 H135 helicopters for Spain are now complete, with the final aircraft handed to the Spanish Navy. The program split airframes between the Air and Space Force, the Army, the Navy, the National Police and the Guardia Civil, creating a single baseline for training and support. The H135 is a light twin with a Fenestron shrouded tail rotor, Helionix avionics and a cabin that can be reconfigured quickly. With the Navy taking the last aircraft, the policy goal is clearer: standardize the fleet, simplify logistics, and keep production work anchored in Spain.Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link
The Airbus H135 is a light twin helicopter with a compact design, Fenestron tail rotor, modular cabin, and versatility for training, medevac, surveillance, and naval operations (Picture source: Airbus Helicopters).
Spain’s H135 sits in the three-ton class and typically flies with either Safran Arrius 2B2 Plus or Pratt & Whitney PW206B3 engines. The dual-engine choice lets planners line up maintenance with existing support contracts and spread risk on deployments, which matters when small fleets are stretched across islands, mountain ranges, and ships at sea. In service, the helicopter cruises around 135 to 140 knots and offers endurance of a touch above three and a half hours in standard fit. Range in the 340 nautical mile bracket will not impress anyone chasing long legs, but the compact footprint often matters more in practice.
A main rotor just over ten meters across and a D-value near twelve meters let crews drop into urban helipads and small frigate decks without theater. Out-of-ground-effect hover above 7,000 feet is decent for a light twin. The Fenestron tail helps around deck crews and tight ramps, reducing risk when the margin for error shrinks. Helionix delivers a modern glass cockpit with a four-axis autopilot, synthetic vision, and smart human-machine interface choices that cut pilot workload. For Spain, which has operated EC135s for years in training roles, the shift to H135 standard is evolutionary rather than disruptive. Instructors and students move through a common logic flow. All those little frictions that normally slow down a transition get trimmed away, and the sortie rate stays healthy.
Navalization is where the P3H earns its keep. The Spanish Navy adds the components that matter when the sea state is unkind or the deck is crowded, such as emergency flotation, corrosion control measures, pressure refueling, NVG-compatible lighting, a rescue hoist with predictable performance, and the deck handling kit needed for confined flight decks. The configuration also provides for a weather and surface search radar, an electro-optical turret, fast-rope provisions, a belly cargo hook, and auxiliary fuel if the mission profile demands it. Together, it turns a trainer-utility airframe into a deck-friendly helper that can do real work without burning hours on larger platforms. Access to common components is straightforward, direct operating costs are low for a twin, and there is a single spares philosophy across agencies. When a surge task arrives, parts and people can be cross-decked without a long argument about compatibility.
Commanders use that type of helicopter to get eyes on scene fast, move a small team, hold a steady orbit for a sensor, or pull someone off a deck or a cliff without dragging in a heavier helicopter. In maritime use that translates to short logistics hops to ships at anchor, hoist drills that often turn into actual rescues, and deck landing practice for crews on the path to bigger naval types. In law enforcement, it allows to see quiet orbits at a few thousand feet, an EO/IR turret feeding a command post, then a quick refuel on a small pad before the next call. Because the autopilot and stability augmentation are competent, crews can focus on the hoist, the sensor, and the radio picture rather than fighting the hover.
Spain tied assembly and completion work to Airbus Helicopters España in Albacete, sustaining skills and jobs while renewing fleets that had drifted apart over time, with fewer unique parts to stock, fewer software baselines to maintain, fewer separate training courses to rewrite every year. Delivery cadence since the first airframes reached the Air and Space Force has been steady enough to stand up training squadrons, transition instructors, and bring the Navy’s Twelfth Squadron into the fold without big gaps. By the time the last helicopter rolled onto the ramp, the early airframes were already in use.
Allies in Europe are investing in depth and readiness, Spain faces steady border management around the Strait of Gibraltar and the approaches to the Canary Islands, regular NATO maritime commitments, and civil protection missions that spike with wildfires and coastal storms. A shared light twin lets the government shift crews and airframes across those demands with fewer seams between ministries. It also lines up with NATO’s interoperability emphasis. When an exercise needs Spanish assets for deck landing qualifications or medevac cover, an H135 detachment can turn up with pilots trained on the same baseline and logisticians who already know which part numbers to bring. Spain conducted the work of standardizing a category of helicopter that is used in daily operations. The Air and Space Force, Navy, National Police, and Guardia Civil now share a platform, a training language, and a support backbone.
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Airbus Helicopters has delivered the final H135 light twin to the Spanish Navy, completing a 36-aircraft order across Spain’s military and security services. The program streamlines training, logistics, and operations while sustaining aerospace jobs in Spain.
Airbus Helicopters announced on its official X account that deliveries of 36 H135 helicopters for Spain are now complete, with the final aircraft handed to the Spanish Navy. The program split airframes between the Air and Space Force, the Army, the Navy, the National Police and the Guardia Civil, creating a single baseline for training and support. The H135 is a light twin with a Fenestron shrouded tail rotor, Helionix avionics and a cabin that can be reconfigured quickly. With the Navy taking the last aircraft, the policy goal is clearer: standardize the fleet, simplify logistics, and keep production work anchored in Spain.
Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link
The Airbus H135 is a light twin helicopter with a compact design, Fenestron tail rotor, modular cabin, and versatility for training, medevac, surveillance, and naval operations (Picture source: Airbus Helicopters).
Spain’s H135 sits in the three-ton class and typically flies with either Safran Arrius 2B2 Plus or Pratt & Whitney PW206B3 engines. The dual-engine choice lets planners line up maintenance with existing support contracts and spread risk on deployments, which matters when small fleets are stretched across islands, mountain ranges, and ships at sea. In service, the helicopter cruises around 135 to 140 knots and offers endurance of a touch above three and a half hours in standard fit. Range in the 340 nautical mile bracket will not impress anyone chasing long legs, but the compact footprint often matters more in practice.
A main rotor just over ten meters across and a D-value near twelve meters let crews drop into urban helipads and small frigate decks without theater. Out-of-ground-effect hover above 7,000 feet is decent for a light twin. The Fenestron tail helps around deck crews and tight ramps, reducing risk when the margin for error shrinks. Helionix delivers a modern glass cockpit with a four-axis autopilot, synthetic vision, and smart human-machine interface choices that cut pilot workload. For Spain, which has operated EC135s for years in training roles, the shift to H135 standard is evolutionary rather than disruptive. Instructors and students move through a common logic flow. All those little frictions that normally slow down a transition get trimmed away, and the sortie rate stays healthy.
Navalization is where the P3H earns its keep. The Spanish Navy adds the components that matter when the sea state is unkind or the deck is crowded, such as emergency flotation, corrosion control measures, pressure refueling, NVG-compatible lighting, a rescue hoist with predictable performance, and the deck handling kit needed for confined flight decks. The configuration also provides for a weather and surface search radar, an electro-optical turret, fast-rope provisions, a belly cargo hook, and auxiliary fuel if the mission profile demands it. Together, it turns a trainer-utility airframe into a deck-friendly helper that can do real work without burning hours on larger platforms. Access to common components is straightforward, direct operating costs are low for a twin, and there is a single spares philosophy across agencies. When a surge task arrives, parts and people can be cross-decked without a long argument about compatibility.
Commanders use that type of helicopter to get eyes on scene fast, move a small team, hold a steady orbit for a sensor, or pull someone off a deck or a cliff without dragging in a heavier helicopter. In maritime use that translates to short logistics hops to ships at anchor, hoist drills that often turn into actual rescues, and deck landing practice for crews on the path to bigger naval types. In law enforcement, it allows to see quiet orbits at a few thousand feet, an EO/IR turret feeding a command post, then a quick refuel on a small pad before the next call. Because the autopilot and stability augmentation are competent, crews can focus on the hoist, the sensor, and the radio picture rather than fighting the hover.
Spain tied assembly and completion work to Airbus Helicopters España in Albacete, sustaining skills and jobs while renewing fleets that had drifted apart over time, with fewer unique parts to stock, fewer software baselines to maintain, fewer separate training courses to rewrite every year. Delivery cadence since the first airframes reached the Air and Space Force has been steady enough to stand up training squadrons, transition instructors, and bring the Navy’s Twelfth Squadron into the fold without big gaps. By the time the last helicopter rolled onto the ramp, the early airframes were already in use.
Allies in Europe are investing in depth and readiness, Spain faces steady border management around the Strait of Gibraltar and the approaches to the Canary Islands, regular NATO maritime commitments, and civil protection missions that spike with wildfires and coastal storms. A shared light twin lets the government shift crews and airframes across those demands with fewer seams between ministries. It also lines up with NATO’s interoperability emphasis. When an exercise needs Spanish assets for deck landing qualifications or medevac cover, an H135 detachment can turn up with pilots trained on the same baseline and logisticians who already know which part numbers to bring. Spain conducted the work of standardizing a category of helicopter that is used in daily operations. The Air and Space Force, Navy, National Police, and Guardia Civil now share a platform, a training language, and a support backbone.
