A Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) NH90 tactical transport helicopter has become the first aircraft of its type globally to reach 3,000 flight hours. The milestone was achieved by the helicopter designated TNZA002 at RNZAF Base Ohakea on August 26, 2026.
The RNZAF operates a fleet of eight NH90 helicopters under No. 3 Squadron. Despite the small fleet size, the New Zealand squadron leads the operational intensity among the approximately 530 NH90 helicopters currently in active service worldwide. The platform was introduced in December 2011 to replace the RNZAF’s legacy Iroquois fleet.
The New Zealand fleet supports a variety of military and civil missions, including tactical troop transport, search and rescue, casualty evacuation, maritime deployments, and humanitarian disaster relief. The aircraft have been heavily deployed during domestic emergencies, such as the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake, the 2019 Whakaari White Island eruption, and the 2020 Australian bushfires. During the Cyclone Gabrielle response in 2023, No. 3 Squadron crews evacuated 384 people and transported more than 90,000 kilograms of total cargo.
“It’s a significant achievement for what is a small fleet and small team,” said NH90 Flight Commander Squadron Leader Lachie Johnston. “We need to always have these aircraft available to fly and it’s a testament to the maintainers, who put in the long days in often trying conditions to get the helicopters flying, as well as the supply chain, and the fleet planners”.
To sustain this operational tempo, Airbus Helicopters has maintained an embedded workforce within the RNZAF’s maintenance organization at Ohakea since 2015. The joint deeper maintenance team performs major 600-flight-hour servicings, contributing to a fleet serviceability rate of approximately 75 percent, which consistently exceeds the global operator average. Additionally, this integrated technical support allowed the RNZAF to become the first operator globally to complete the Software Release 2 upgrade across its entire NH90 fleet.