H125M / AS550 Fennec

The Airbus Helicopters H125M is the military version of the H125, the single-engine light utility helicopter first flown by Aérospatiale in 1974 as the AS350 Écureuil and built since by Eurocopter and Airbus Helicopters. From 1990 its armed and military derivatives were marketed as the AS550 Fennec, with the twin-engined AS555 Fennec 2 derived from the AS355 Écureuil 2. The Fennec family flies armed reconnaissance, training, liaison, light transport and shipboard utility missions for air arms including those of France, Denmark, Pakistan and Brazil, and inherits the airframe's high-altitude performance.

Development

In the early 1970s Aérospatiale set out to replace the Alouette II with a design aimed first at civil buyers. The first prototype, an AS350C with a Lycoming LTS101 turboshaft, flew at Marignane on 27 June 1974; the Arriel-powered AS350B was certified in France on 27 October 1977 and delivered from March 1978, and the AS350 B3 with the Arriel 2B first flew on 1 March 1997.

Military derivatives followed the civil engine steps: the AS350 L1 from the B1, with a 510 kW (684 shp) Arriel 1D, and the AS350 L2 from the B2, with a 546 kW (732 shp) Arriel 1D1, whose designation became AS550 C2. The AS550 C2 and unarmed U2 are based on the AS350 B2 and the AS550 C3 on the B3; the AS555 AF Fennec 2 on the twin-engined AS355 N. In Brazil, Helibras built the HB350 Esquilo family under licence, including the armed HB350 L1 (HA-1) for the Army, and in 2022 Brazil ordered 27 Helibras-assembled H125 trainers, twelve for the Air Force and fifteen for the Navy, to replace AS350s and Bell 206s. Besides Marignane and Itajubá, the type is assembled at Columbus, Mississippi, where Airbus launched the AH-125 and MH-125 Ares armed and multi-role export versions in April 2023, with a 12.7 mm gun and unguided rockets. An Airbus–Tata final assembly line at Vemagal, Karnataka, inaugurated on 17 February 2026, will build the civil H125 and potentially the H125M, with the first delivery expected in early 2027; the H125 is reportedly a front-runner in India's Reconnaissance and Surveillance Helicopter requirement.

Design

The AS350/H125 is a single-engine helicopter whose Arriel or LTS101 turboshaft drives a three-blade composite main rotor on a Starflex head. The AS350 B3 has a 632 kW (848 shp) Arriel 2B with a single-channel digital engine control unit and mechanical back-up; the B3/2B1 adds dual-channel FADEC, dual hydraulics and a 2,370 kg (5,225 lb) maximum take-off weight, and the B3e of late 2011, renamed H125, has the 710 kW (952 shp) Arriel 2D. The B3 has a 10.7 m (35 ft 1 in) rotor, an empty weight of 1,174 kg (2,588 lb) and a maximum take-off weight of 2,250 kg (4,960 lb); it cruises at 245 km/h (132 kn), has a range of 662 km (357 nmi) and a service ceiling of 4,600 m (15,100 ft).

The cabin seats four to six passengers behind a Vehicle and Engine Multifunction Display and First Limit Indicator, with a three-screen glass cockpit on later aircraft. Mission fits include forward-looking infrared turrets, rescue hoists, cargo hooks, night-vision-goggle compatibility and sand filters. The Fennec's light, compact airframe suits it to operation from destroyers and aircraft carriers; the AS555 twin adds power and engine redundancy, the single-engine AS550 simpler maintenance.

Armament

The armed AS550 C2 and C3 and the AS555 Fennec 2 can be fitted with guns, rockets and other munitions, and the naval twin-engined versions with torpedoes. The AS555 AN Fennec 2 carries a 20 mm cannon and the AS555 AR cannon and rockets, while the AS555 SN is the Argentine Navy's version. In Brazil the Army's HA-1 is the armed member of the Esquilo family. The current H125M is offered with HForce, Airbus's modular weapon system shared with the H145M and H225M: a 20 mm cannon, a 12.7 mm machine gun and 68 mm or 70 mm rockets, plus laser-guided rockets and air-to-ground missiles, aimed through a helmet-mounted sight or an electro-optical sight.

Operational History

The French Air Force received AS555s between February 1988 and March 1994 and fielded 40 as of 2024 for light transport, medical evacuation, search and rescue, base protection and air policing against slow, low-flying aircraft; the Ministry of the Armed Forces plans to retire them in 2035 as the H160M Guépard, ordered in December 2021, builds up from 2030. In January 1990 the ALAT took 17 AS555 Fennecs for the 6th Utility Helicopter Squadron at the Le Luc training school for training and liaison. Denmark ordered twelve AS550 C2s in 1987 and received the first in August 1990; geopolitical change saw them repurposed for observation and light transport, and three deployed to Macedonia for Operation Amber Fox in 2002, followed by Iraq from 2005 and Afghanistan in 2008. The Argentine Navy, barred from acquiring Westland Sea Lynx helicopters after the Falklands War, received its first four AS555 SNs in 1996, and in June 2015 Argentina signed a memorandum of understanding with Airbus Helicopters for twelve H125s to replace 1970s SA 315B Lamas in search and rescue; none had been delivered by October 2024. In 2011 a Royal Malaysian Navy Fennec provided reconnaissance and aerial gunfire in the recovery of a chemical tanker hijacked by Somali pirates; on 23 April 2024 a navy Fennec with three aboard collided with a navy AW139 over Lumut while rehearsing for Navy Day celebrations, a crash the navy said killed all ten crew; FlightGlobal counted four AS555s in Malaysian service in October 2024.

In Brazil more than 300 Écureuils of all users were flying by 2011, including from the aircraft carrier São Paulo, and Helibras signed a contract in January 2011 to upgrade the Army's 36 aircraft; as of October 2024 the Army's 33 H125M/AS550s were the second-largest such fleet after Pakistan Army Aviation's 35. The Brazilian Navy began accepting its H125 trainers, designated IH-18, in April 2025. Benin, which had received two AS550s in 2020, took delivery of two H125Ms on 3 February 2023, fitted with a Trakka TC-300 electro-optical/infrared turret, for Operation Mirador against jihadist groups in the north of the country. Other military operators include the Royal Jordanian Air Force, the Egyptian and Kenyan air forces, the Nepalese Army Air Service and the Chilean Army and Navy.

Variants

• AS350 L1 / L2: Military derivatives of the B1 and B2 with the Arriel 1D and 1D1; the L2 designation became AS550 C2.
• AS550 C2 / U2 Fennec: Armed and unarmed versions based on the AS350 B2, the C2 flown by Denmark.
• AS550 C3 / C3e Fennec (H125M): Armed version based on the AS350 B3; the Arriel 2D-powered C3e, based on the H125, is marketed as the H125M with the HForce weapon system.
• AS555 AN / AR / SN Fennec 2: Twin-engined versions based on the AS355 Écureuil 2, the AN with a 20 mm cannon, the AR with cannon and rockets, the SN for the Argentine Navy.
• HB350 L1 Esquilo (HA-1): Armed Brazilian Army version built under licence by Helibras.
• AH-125 / MH-125 Ares: US-built armed and multi-role H125 versions launched in April 2023 for export customers, with a 12.7 mm gun and unguided rockets.