Airbus Wins Order to Supply H160 Helicopter to Japanese Buyer

Airbus SE EADSY recently secured an order from Japan’s Nagoya City Fire Bureau to supply an H160 multi-role helicopter.

For over 65 years, Airbus Helicopters has been a reliable partner to Japan, with nearly 380 helicopters operating nationwide across diverse missions. The newly ordered H160 will further strengthen these efforts, taking on roles in firefighting, search and rescue, and disaster response tasks, such as surveying impacted regions and conducting reconnaissance missions.

More than 140 armed forces worldwide rely on Airbus for its expertise in producing high-quality, multi-role helicopters. These helicopters fulfill a wide range of operational military roles, including armed reconnaissance, utility, attack, naval, maritime and special operations.

EADSY’s H160 multi-role helicopter is equipped for light attack operations and offers rapid reconfiguration for a variety of missions, including commando insertion and air interception. Its versatility also extends to civilian applications. Configured for search and rescue or aerial firefighting, the H160 can be outfitted with a belly-mounted water tank or firefighting bucket to effectively support ground teams in wildfire suppression.

EADSY’s Focus on Helicopter Business

As a top manufacturer of combat helicopters, Airbus consistently attracts orders from military forces around the world. This latest order further solidifies its global standing and is expected to contribute positively to the company’s future revenue growth. 

The Airbus Helicopters segment registered solid 10% year-over-year revenue growth in the first quarter of 2025. As of the same quarter, the segment registered 100 net orders (compared with 63 units in the year-ago quarter), which were well spread across the product range.

Opportunities for Other Defense Companies

Other defense companies that are expected to enjoy the perks of the expanding helicopter market have been discussed below:

The Boeing Company BA: The company’s helicopters are renowned for their leading-edge, relevant solutions that provide capacity. Boeing’s product portfolio includes combat helicopters and rotorcraft like the H-47 Chinook, AH-64 Apache, AH-6 Little Bird and V-22 Osprey.

Boeing has a long-term (three to five years) earnings growth rate of 18.1%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for BA’s 2025 sales indicates an improvement of 27.5%.

Textron Inc. TXT: TXT’s Bell business segment supplies advanced military helicopters and provides parts and support services to the U.S. Government and military customers outside the United States. Its portfolio of combat helicopters includes Bell 412M, Bell 429M and Bell 407M.
 
Textron boasts a long-term earnings growth rate of 10%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for TXT’s 2025 sales indicates year-over-year growth of 6.6%.

Lockheed Martin Corp. LMT: Its Sikorsky business unit provides military and rotary-wing aircraft to all five branches of the U.S. armed forces, along with military services and commercial operators in 40 nations. Some of LMT’s renowned products are HH-60W, CH-53K, MH-60R SEAHAWK, RAIDER X, S-97 RAIDER, S-70 BLACK HAWK, etc.

Lockheed boasts a long-term earnings growth rate of 10.5%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for LMT’s 2025 sales indicates an improvement of 4.6%.

EADSY Stock Price Movement

In the past six months, Airbus shares have risen 28.6% compared with the industry’s growth of 21.8%.

EADSY’s Zacks Rank

Airbus currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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