Standard 2 Project https://www.airbus.com/newsroom/stories/NH90-cut-for-the-21st-century.html
One of the strengths of the NH90 is that it is continuously updated further to requests made by its 14 customers, for the benefit of the entire community.
Among them, Standard 2, the major update of the NH90 currently under development, responds to this logic. The first requirements relating to this new standard were expressed in 2014 by the French Special Forces. Placed under a bushel for budgetary reasons, Standard 2 resurfaced in 2017 as part of a cooperation with Australia, which was later joined by Belgium."
"The signing of a development contract between these three countries is now expected for early 2020," explains Jean-François Ménière, Head of NH90 Programme Management France and Standard 2 Project. "France currently has 74 NH90s on order and the last ten are planned to be delivered directly in Standard 2. The Australian and Belgian aircraft, respectively forty-seven and four already delivered, will benefit from a retrofit." The scope of Standard 2 focuses on the digitisation of the NH90 sensors, i.e., the integration of the Safran EuroFlir™ MSP410D mission ball and its ten integrated multiband sensors, the replacement of the FLIR with fixed distributed sensors, the image merger of which offers a 220° panoramic view. "These sensors provide a TV and infrared video stream to the two pilots and to tablets that can be used by passengers in the hold,” specifies Jean-François Menière. "Flight safety will be greatly improved, with a better understanding of the environment in degraded environments. Another advantage is that all the video streams can be recorded and used for debriefing or intelligence purposes." The scope of Standard 2 also provides for rear section modifications for greater flexibility for the Special Forces. Note that a request for proposal has also been sent to NHIndustries for improvements on the NFH; a major update of this embedded version is also under study. Evidently, the NH90, created at the end of the 20th century, has all the assets to successfully face the 21st century.