The Italian aerospace company Leonardo will build 28 helicopters for Qatar's military, the Qatari ministry of defense announced on Wednesday.

In a $3.71 billion deal, Leonardo will be the prime contractor to construct 28 MH90 helicopters, a versatile, twin-engine multirole military aircraft in use by NATO countries.

"This contract award confirms Leonardo as a reliable partner to Qatar and marks an outstanding achievement and a new and further milestone for one of the key sectors of Leonardo," Alessandro Profumo, CEO at Leonardo, said in a press release. "We are all strongly committed to strengthen our business approach according to our 2018-2022 Industrial Plan."

The deal breaks down to 16 NH90 TTH models, meant for land operations, and 12 NH90 NFH models, for naval missions, as well as support, maintenance, training and associated infrastructure services. Leonardo will handle management, final assembly and delivery of the NFH models, while Airbus is expected to be responsible for final assembly of the TTH models.

Qatar also retains an option for six more of each aircraft in the future, according to Leonardo.

The deal was announced at the DIMDEX Exhibition of military equipment manufacturers in Doha, Qatar. Deliveries will begin in 2022 and continue through 2025.

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