Airbus Unveils the U145, an Uncrewed Variant of the H145

Berlin, 8 June 2026

Key points

• Airbus Helicopters unveiled the U145 on 8 June ahead of ILA Berlin — an uncrewed variant of its in-production H145 light twin, shown as a full-scale mock-up
• Maximum take-off weight is 3,800 kg; the cockpit is deleted in favour of an integrated nose door with a foldable loading table and a dedicated cargo floor, with a specialised sensor suite and artificial intelligence for full autonomy
• A maiden flight with a safety pilot on board is planned for the end of 2026; entry into service is expected at the beginning of the next decade
• Missions run from high-volume cargo resupply through disaster management, firefighting, armed scouting and surveillance to crewed-uncrewed teaming and a drone-mothership role for air-launched effects, for which Airbus is partnering with MBDA

Airbus Helicopters unveiled the U145 on 8 June ahead of ILA Berlin — an uncrewed variant of its in-production H145 light twin helicopter, shown as a full-scale mock-up, with a maiden flight planned for the end of 2026 and entry into service at the beginning of the next decade.

The U145 keeps the H145's airframe, power and useful load — 3,800 kg maximum take-off weight — and removes the cockpit. In its place: an integrated nose door with a foldable loading table and a dedicated cargo floor, sized for the high-volume resupply mission Airbus puts first. A specialised sensor suite and artificial intelligence provide full autonomy. 'With the U145, we are offering our customers an autonomous, uncrewed version combining H145 airframe, power and useful load with UAS autonomy,' said Matthieu Louvot, chief executive of Airbus Helicopters.

The mission set is deliberately modular: cargo first, then disaster management, firefighting, armed scouting, surveillance and crewed-uncrewed teaming — and a drone-mothership role for air-launched effects, for which Airbus names MBDA as partner rather than developing effects in-house.

It is the company's second conversion of a crewed helicopter into an uncrewed one, after the VSR700 derived from the Cabri G2 — and the base is broad: more than 1,800 H145s fly today across military, parapublic and civil fleets, with over 8.5 million cumulative flight hours.

The proprietary read. The strategy is conversion, not clean sheet — a certified, in-production airframe that operators already fly, with the weapons layer bought from MBDA. That is a capital-efficient, European-sovereign route into a capability the continent lacks: uncrewed tactical resupply and a rotary node for crewed-uncrewed teaming. The mock-up landed the morning the FCAS fighter cancellation broke — convenient optics for Berlin, locked in months earlier by the ILA calendar; the conversion logic underneath is real either way, as Signal No. 77 assessed on the day.

Sources: Airbus Helicopters · MBDA.

First reported in Signal No. 77, 8 June 2026.