Paris Air Show: Airbus aims to qualify new Nexter gun pod on H225M helicopter
Firing trials with a pod-mounted Nexter 20mm have been taking place on an H225M since April 2023. (Photo: Nexter)
Since April 2023, Airbus Helicopters has been carrying out flight qualification firing of Nexter's NC 621 gun pod on an H225M Caracal helicopter.
The pod integrates the 20M621 20mm cannon, which has been designed to arm light aircraft and helicopters.
The joint project between Airbus and Nexter follows previous collaboration on the 30mm turret for the Tiger helicopter, inter alia.
The 20M621 is effective up to 2km and has low recoil for easier integration on lightweight platforms. The Nexter pod fires standard NATO 20x102mm ammunition. Several thousand are in service across air, land and sea applications.
According to Shephard Defence Insight, nearly 250 H225Ms are
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