H160M Guépard
ICAO H160Airbus's newest helicopter, entering French service as the Guépard. Live H160 positions.
Flying right now
Live · 30s
No H160M Guépard is transmitting ADS-B at the moment.
Military aircraft are not obliged to broadcast, so this happens regularly. The count refreshes every thirty seconds.
Airframe
- Manufacturer
- Airbus Helicopters
- Role
- Light multirole helicopter
- Class
- H2T — Helicopter, 2 turboshaft engines
- Crew
- 2
- First flight
- 13 June 2015
- In service
- 2021
Operators airborne
Nothing of this type is up right now.
About the H160M Guépard
The H160 is the first genuinely new Airbus helicopter in years, and it looks it: canted fins, a shrouded fenestron tail rotor and blades curved at the tip in a shape Airbus calls Blue Edge, designed to cut the slapping noise a helicopter makes in the descent.
France has selected it as the Guépard — Cheetah — to replace five different types across its army, navy and air force with one airframe. The naval version has already begun operating while the definitive military model is developed.
It is a new type, so the numbers here are small and mostly French. Civil and offshore examples share the designator.
Callsign prefixes
- CTM
- Cotam — French armed forces
- MARINE
- French naval aviation
- RESCUE
- Search and rescue tasking
How to recognise it
- —A shrouded fenestron tail rotor set in a canted fin, with a second fin below.
- —Main rotor blades with a distinctive double-swept curve at the tip.
- —A smooth, modern fuselage with retractable wheels and a sharply raked windscreen.
Common questions
+ What is the Guépard?
The French military designation for the H160M. France plans to replace five legacy helicopter types across all three services with it, in a programme called HIL.
+ What is Blue Edge?
Airbus's name for the double-swept rotor blade fitted to the H160. The curved tip reduces the blade-vortex interaction that causes the characteristic slapping noise, making the aircraft noticeably quieter.
+ Is the H160 in military service yet?
Partially. France began operating naval H160s under an interim arrangement while the full Guépard specification is developed, with deliveries of the definitive version expected later this decade.