Italy’s Army to Field 48 AW249 Fenice Helicopters After Parliament Approves 29-Unit Order
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Italy’s Parliament has approved the purchase of 29 additional AW249 Fenice attack helicopters, expanding the Army’s future fleet to 48 units under the NEES program. The decision strengthens Italy’s domestic defense industry and sets the path for a full transition away from the aging A129 Mangusta.
On 28 October 2025, the Italian Parliament gave the green light to the ministerial decree that authorizes the Army to acquire 29 additional AW-249 Fenice combat helicopters, bringing the total fleet planned under the NEES (Nuovo elicottero da esplorazione e scorta) program to 48 aircraft, as reported by the Italian ministerial decree. This step formally opens the third phase of a multi-year effort launched in 2016 to replace the ageing A129 Mangusta and to renew the aeromechanized component of the land forces. It is a significant decision because it consolidates Italy’s choice of a national attack helicopter, secures long-term industrialization and logistics, and locks in the Army’s combat aviation structure for the next decade. The approval comes after the decree was transmitted to Parliament on 13 October 2025 and examined by the defence and budget committees of both chambers.
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Italy is set to acquire the advanced AW249 Fenice attack helicopter, a next-generation platform developed by Leonardo to replace the aging A129 Mangusta and enhance the Army’s combat and reconnaissance capabilities (Picture Source: Army Recognition Group)
According to the decree, this third phase is worth 1.221 billion euros and covers four key elements: the procurement of 29 AW-249 in Full Operational Capability (FOC) configuration, the retrofit of the first 19 helicopters already under contract to the same FOC standard, the certification and industrialization of the platform, and a ten-year integrated logistical and training support package including classrooms, simulators and mission-planning tools. The spending, entered on the MIMIT budget line 7421-03, will start in 2026 and extend to 2032, with yearly tranches between 30 and 274 million euros, fully in line with the long-term renewal schedule of the Italian Army. This brings the overall financial envelope of the AW-249/NEES programme, started with decree SMD 02/2016 and reinforced with SMD 06/2020, to about 4.6 billion euros at 2024 economic conditions, confirming it as one of the heaviest national land-forces aviation investments of the decade.
The 29 helicopters approved on 28 October will join the 19 already contracted in the previous phases. Those first aircraft were ordered in an Initial Operational Capability (IOC) configuration to accelerate entry into service and to support test, tactics development and early training. The newly approved phase now standardizes the entire fleet on the definitive FOC configuration, avoiding a costly split between early and late versions and ensuring that all 48 rotorcraft can be deployed interchangeably on high-intensity operations. This approach had been foreshadowed in Italian parliamentary documents and in specialized defence media, which noted that Italy intended to “complete the fleet” up to 48 units once the FOC baseline was frozen.
The AW-249 Fenice, developed by Leonardo Helicopters as successor to the A129 Mangusta, is a new-generation dedicated combat helicopter designed for multi-domain operations. Compared to the Mangusta, which originated from requirements drafted in the late 1970s for anti-tank defence in Central Europe, the AW-249 is larger (7–8 tonnes MTOW versus about 5 tonnes), carries more than double the weapon load (close to 2,000 kg), and incorporates a fully digital, open-architecture mission system able to integrate Italian and allied effectors. It retains some proven subsystems, such as the 20 mm chin gun and the ability to fire Spike family anti-tank missiles, but combines them with a new airframe, new dynamic components derived from the AW149, and uprated GE T700 engines selected by the Italian Army to guarantee hot-and-high performance and electrical power margins for sensors and countermeasures. This makes the Fenice closer in concept to contemporary European and American gunships than to the Mangusta that it replaces, narrowing the gap with platforms such as the AH-64E Apache Guardian and the Franco-German Tiger MkIII in terms of digital connectivity, crew protection and weapons flexibility.
From an operational-history standpoint, the AW-249 is the culmination of almost 35 years of Italian experience with the A129 in Lebanon, Afghanistan and Iraq, where the Mangusta proved extremely useful in escort, close protection, convoy overwatch and support to special forces but also revealed structural limitations in payload, growth potential and survivability. Italian Army aviation systematically fed these lessons into the NEES requirement: the new helicopter had to stay for longer on station, operate as an airborne node inside a digitized battlespace, and survive in an environment saturated with MANPADS, drones and electronic threats. The prototype’s first flight in August 2022 at Vergiate marked the transition from concept to reality, and by early 2025 Italy had already contracted and financed an initial batch of 17–19 aircraft, openly stating that the target was a 48-helicopter fleet replacing the Mangusta one-for-one.
The decree now approved by Parliament is therefore less a surprise decision than the planned maturation of the programme to its final stage. It brings several concrete advantages. First, it secures the FOC configuration and funds the retrofit of all IOC aircraft, which is essential to avoid a mixed fleet and to reduce operating costs over the life-cycle. Second, it locks in a decade of logistical support, giving the Army predictable sustainment for training squadrons, operational regiments and any future expeditionary task forces. Third, it finances the training system, including simulators, which is a prerequisite if Italy wants to generate enough crews while transitioning out of the Mangusta without creating a capability dip. And fourth, it industrializes the helicopter in Italy, keeping design authority, assembly and a large part of the supply chain on national soil, with the potential to offer the AW-249 abroad in the second half of the 2020s, building on the letter of intent once signed with the Polish Armaments Group for possible cooperation.
In capability terms, the arrival of 29 extra Fenice helicopters will give the Esercito Italiano a fully modernized combat-helicopter regiment structure able to conduct armed reconnaissance, close air support, anti-armour strike, convoy escort and overwatch for manoeuvre brigades in the Mediterranean, Balkan and Sahel theatres. The helicopter’s architecture, designed from the start to control UAVs and to fight in network-centric scenarios, aligns with NATO’s shift toward contested, long-range, sensor-to-shooter environments. At a time when Russia’s war against Ukraine has underlined the vulnerability of legacy rotary-wing platforms against dense air defences and loitering munitions, funding DIRCM, radar-warning and digital EW suites on the AW-249 is politically easy to justify to Parliament. It also ensures that Italy can deploy attack helicopters alongside allies in high-end missions without relying on U.S. Apaches or French Tigers for the hardest tasks.
The strategic implications go beyond the Army. By choosing to finance the 1.221-billion-euro tranche through the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy, Rome clearly signals that NEES is also an industrial-policy tool. The Italian helicopter sector, where Leonardo is a global player, secures a production and support workload to 2032, stabilizing engineering staffs and test facilities that will be useful for future cooperation programmes or export contests. The parliamentary dossier stresses that, even if no international cooperation was envisaged at the start, the successful completion of the AW-249 could “place national industry in a position of advantage on the European market”. This mirrors what happened with the Mangusta in the 1990s and 2000s, when the experience accumulated on a national program later supported derivative projects and export variants.
This approval consolidates Italy’s attack-helicopter renewal, ensures that the Army will field a homogeneous, FOC-level AW-249 fleet between 2026 and 2032, and sends a clear signal that Rome wants to keep combat-aviation know-how, jobs and high-value supply chains in the country. It also gives Italian forces a credible, survivable and digitally connected platform at a moment when European armies are rediscovering the importance of escorted maneuver, deep strike and armed reconnaissance in high-threat environments. For partners and potential export customers, the message is equally clear: the AW-249 is no longer an experimental prototype displayed at Eurosatory, but a fully funded national program, with parliament behind it and a 4.6-billion-euro budget profile to match.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.
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Italy’s Parliament has approved the purchase of 29 additional AW249 Fenice attack helicopters, expanding the Army’s future fleet to 48 units under the NEES program. The decision strengthens Italy’s domestic defense industry and sets the path for a full transition away from the aging A129 Mangusta.
On 28 October 2025, the Italian Parliament gave the green light to the ministerial decree that authorizes the Army to acquire 29 additional AW-249 Fenice combat helicopters, bringing the total fleet planned under the NEES (Nuovo elicottero da esplorazione e scorta) program to 48 aircraft, as reported by the Italian ministerial decree. This step formally opens the third phase of a multi-year effort launched in 2016 to replace the ageing A129 Mangusta and to renew the aeromechanized component of the land forces. It is a significant decision because it consolidates Italy’s choice of a national attack helicopter, secures long-term industrialization and logistics, and locks in the Army’s combat aviation structure for the next decade. The approval comes after the decree was transmitted to Parliament on 13 October 2025 and examined by the defence and budget committees of both chambers.
Italy is set to acquire the advanced AW249 Fenice attack helicopter, a next-generation platform developed by Leonardo to replace the aging A129 Mangusta and enhance the Army’s combat and reconnaissance capabilities (Picture Source: Army Recognition Group)
According to the decree, this third phase is worth 1.221 billion euros and covers four key elements: the procurement of 29 AW-249 in Full Operational Capability (FOC) configuration, the retrofit of the first 19 helicopters already under contract to the same FOC standard, the certification and industrialization of the platform, and a ten-year integrated logistical and training support package including classrooms, simulators and mission-planning tools. The spending, entered on the MIMIT budget line 7421-03, will start in 2026 and extend to 2032, with yearly tranches between 30 and 274 million euros, fully in line with the long-term renewal schedule of the Italian Army. This brings the overall financial envelope of the AW-249/NEES programme, started with decree SMD 02/2016 and reinforced with SMD 06/2020, to about 4.6 billion euros at 2024 economic conditions, confirming it as one of the heaviest national land-forces aviation investments of the decade.
The 29 helicopters approved on 28 October will join the 19 already contracted in the previous phases. Those first aircraft were ordered in an Initial Operational Capability (IOC) configuration to accelerate entry into service and to support test, tactics development and early training. The newly approved phase now standardizes the entire fleet on the definitive FOC configuration, avoiding a costly split between early and late versions and ensuring that all 48 rotorcraft can be deployed interchangeably on high-intensity operations. This approach had been foreshadowed in Italian parliamentary documents and in specialized defence media, which noted that Italy intended to “complete the fleet” up to 48 units once the FOC baseline was frozen.
The AW-249 Fenice, developed by Leonardo Helicopters as successor to the A129 Mangusta, is a new-generation dedicated combat helicopter designed for multi-domain operations. Compared to the Mangusta, which originated from requirements drafted in the late 1970s for anti-tank defence in Central Europe, the AW-249 is larger (7–8 tonnes MTOW versus about 5 tonnes), carries more than double the weapon load (close to 2,000 kg), and incorporates a fully digital, open-architecture mission system able to integrate Italian and allied effectors. It retains some proven subsystems, such as the 20 mm chin gun and the ability to fire Spike family anti-tank missiles, but combines them with a new airframe, new dynamic components derived from the AW149, and uprated GE T700 engines selected by the Italian Army to guarantee hot-and-high performance and electrical power margins for sensors and countermeasures. This makes the Fenice closer in concept to contemporary European and American gunships than to the Mangusta that it replaces, narrowing the gap with platforms such as the AH-64E Apache Guardian and the Franco-German Tiger MkIII in terms of digital connectivity, crew protection and weapons flexibility.
From an operational-history standpoint, the AW-249 is the culmination of almost 35 years of Italian experience with the A129 in Lebanon, Afghanistan and Iraq, where the Mangusta proved extremely useful in escort, close protection, convoy overwatch and support to special forces but also revealed structural limitations in payload, growth potential and survivability. Italian Army aviation systematically fed these lessons into the NEES requirement: the new helicopter had to stay for longer on station, operate as an airborne node inside a digitized battlespace, and survive in an environment saturated with MANPADS, drones and electronic threats. The prototype’s first flight in August 2022 at Vergiate marked the transition from concept to reality, and by early 2025 Italy had already contracted and financed an initial batch of 17–19 aircraft, openly stating that the target was a 48-helicopter fleet replacing the Mangusta one-for-one.
The decree now approved by Parliament is therefore less a surprise decision than the planned maturation of the programme to its final stage. It brings several concrete advantages. First, it secures the FOC configuration and funds the retrofit of all IOC aircraft, which is essential to avoid a mixed fleet and to reduce operating costs over the life-cycle. Second, it locks in a decade of logistical support, giving the Army predictable sustainment for training squadrons, operational regiments and any future expeditionary task forces. Third, it finances the training system, including simulators, which is a prerequisite if Italy wants to generate enough crews while transitioning out of the Mangusta without creating a capability dip. And fourth, it industrializes the helicopter in Italy, keeping design authority, assembly and a large part of the supply chain on national soil, with the potential to offer the AW-249 abroad in the second half of the 2020s, building on the letter of intent once signed with the Polish Armaments Group for possible cooperation.
In capability terms, the arrival of 29 extra Fenice helicopters will give the Esercito Italiano a fully modernized combat-helicopter regiment structure able to conduct armed reconnaissance, close air support, anti-armour strike, convoy escort and overwatch for manoeuvre brigades in the Mediterranean, Balkan and Sahel theatres. The helicopter’s architecture, designed from the start to control UAVs and to fight in network-centric scenarios, aligns with NATO’s shift toward contested, long-range, sensor-to-shooter environments. At a time when Russia’s war against Ukraine has underlined the vulnerability of legacy rotary-wing platforms against dense air defences and loitering munitions, funding DIRCM, radar-warning and digital EW suites on the AW-249 is politically easy to justify to Parliament. It also ensures that Italy can deploy attack helicopters alongside allies in high-end missions without relying on U.S. Apaches or French Tigers for the hardest tasks.
The strategic implications go beyond the Army. By choosing to finance the 1.221-billion-euro tranche through the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy, Rome clearly signals that NEES is also an industrial-policy tool. The Italian helicopter sector, where Leonardo is a global player, secures a production and support workload to 2032, stabilizing engineering staffs and test facilities that will be useful for future cooperation programmes or export contests. The parliamentary dossier stresses that, even if no international cooperation was envisaged at the start, the successful completion of the AW-249 could “place national industry in a position of advantage on the European market”. This mirrors what happened with the Mangusta in the 1990s and 2000s, when the experience accumulated on a national program later supported derivative projects and export variants.
This approval consolidates Italy’s attack-helicopter renewal, ensures that the Army will field a homogeneous, FOC-level AW-249 fleet between 2026 and 2032, and sends a clear signal that Rome wants to keep combat-aviation know-how, jobs and high-value supply chains in the country. It also gives Italian forces a credible, survivable and digitally connected platform at a moment when European armies are rediscovering the importance of escorted maneuver, deep strike and armed reconnaissance in high-threat environments. For partners and potential export customers, the message is equally clear: the AW-249 is no longer an experimental prototype displayed at Eurosatory, but a fully funded national program, with parliament behind it and a 4.6-billion-euro budget profile to match.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.
