This is purely a desire of the Army and the Ejercito de Tierra and not of the helicopter manufacturer itself. Considered as a mid-life modernisation of the Eurocopter EC-665 Tiger fleet, the "Mark 3" will only concern Spanish and French users, Germany having decided to turn its back on it. The more time goes by, the more this project looks like a stopgap measure designed to keep a European combat helicopter that is totally unsaleable for export alive. For the record, even Australia is getting rid of it in favour of the Boeing AH-64E Guardian.

We could talk for hours about Germany's recent false leaps in European programmes, but the fact remains that, objectively speaking, the Tiger UHT was never really adapted to the needs of the Heeresflieger. It is an aircraft conceived during the Cold War, built just after its end and adopted at a time when asymmetric warfare had become the norm. Asymmetric wars in which contemporary Germany actually participates very little, as the country still cultivates an aversion to warlike engagement. When you look back at its recent history, you can immediately see why.

In fact, it would be too easy to consider that Berlin is to blame for the commercial failure of the Tiger and for the abandonment of its participation in the "Mark 3" programme. France also has its share of responsibility, not the France of today but the France of the 1970s and 1980s that wanted its combat helicopter to try to play in the same league as the Americans and the Soviets. That is, the France of Giscard d'Estaing and Mitterrand. This France which did everything to unite Aerospatiale and M.B.B. within the same structure, also playing on a German will of European unity around the European industry. The Tiger was the common dowry of the Germans and the French at the birth of Eurocopter. We are paying the price today.

Yes, the Tiger is a formidable tool and a first-rate weapon. But probably only for the Army's Light Aviation, for whom it was really designed. It is a combat helicopter perfectly adapted to sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Afghanistan where it was like a rooster in dough. For their part, the Fuerzas Aeromóviles del Ejército de Tierra are happy with it, without making too much noise for the moment. After all, isn't Spain the El Dorado of European aeronautical programmes?
Except that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has completely reshuffled the cards. France is now persona non grata in its former African colonies. Not a moment too soon, some would say. They swapped the rouble for the CFA franc, thinking they were getting a bargain. History will tell us if they were right to prefer Moscow's autocracy to Parisian paternalism. The fact remains that the Tiger no longer has a place in this region of the world. Nor does it currently seem to have a place in Eastern and Northern Europe.

However, this does not matter, as Paris and Madrid continue to want Airbus Helicopters to modernise the EC-665 Tiger. Not all of them, however, as budgets are not infinitely expandable since the helicopter in question is a commercial disaster almost comparable to Concorde. It is not selling, and the ten-year projections are not encouraging at all. As it no longer fights, it no longer demonstrates its capabilities, and as a result its competitors are taking over the markets. The Tiger is also expensive, a little more than its American rivals and frankly more than the Chinese and Russian competition.
Of the sixty-seven Tiger aircraft in service, the ALAT will only entrust forty-two to Airbus Helicopters in order to bring them up to the "Mark 3" standard and the FAMET will leave out six of their twenty-four machines. This is not much when we know that this modernisation should allow the aircraft to remain operational and efficient until around 2045.

So on paper this Airbus Helicopter Tiger "Mark 3" is not revolutionary. It is the avionics that will be revised and corrected with better connectivity to the systems. This will allow it to remain a formidable tool for the ALAT and the FAMET, but not necessarily to give it back what it so cruelly lacks internationally: competitiveness. At the end of February, the Minister of the Army, Mr. Sébastien Lecornu, was not very optimistic when he discussed the helicopter with the senators. He insisted on the fact that, according to him, France was going to have a super helicopter that would already be overtaken by MALE combat drones. And for the time being, without any political orientation, we can only agree with him.
But in the end the Tiger "Mark 3" will probably be built, it remains to be seen whether it will really be adapted to the battlefields of the future or whether it will be too modern for them.
The future will tell us.