In 1985, France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom teamed to develop a NATO battlefield transport and anti-ship/anti-submarine helicopter for the 1990s.

[1] On 1 September 1992, NH Industries signed an NH90 design-and-development contract with NAHEMA (NATO Helicopter Management Agency).

[5] Many of the operators have requested specific configurations to their own helicopter fleets, thus each nation's NH90 is effectively customized to the end-user's requirements.

[6] In June 2000, the partner nations placed a large production order for the type, valued at US$8.6 billion, for a total of 366 helicopters.

[8] The NH90 was initially intended to be produced at three exporting final assembly lines (FAL); Cascina Costa in Italy for AgustaWestland, Marignane in France and Donauwörth in Germany for Airbus Helicopters.

[12] In order to speed up delivery and reduce the complexity of manufacturing a large number of variants, NH Industries proposed the adoption of a simplified baseline airframe which could be configured to the individual customer's requirements.