Re: Defence procurement bungles and wins
Reply #74 –
Speaking about helicopters ...
Back in 2004 the Howard government decided to replace Navy Seahawks and Army Blackhawks with the NHIndustries MRH90 multi-purpose helicopters, known as Taipan in Australian service. While it may make sense for both services to use the same helicopter (although six of the RAN helicopters are navalised), the defence department argued strongly against the MRH90 and recommended more Blackhawks.
The Taipan has been a disaster with ongoing reliability problems so bad that the ADF was forced to hire commercial helicopters. On top of that, a Taipan's operating cost runs out at $48K per hour.
Despite lobbying from the French government, the Australian government has decided to ditch the MRH90s and replace them with Seahawks and Blackhawks. We're not exactly back where we started because the new helicopters are current models and quite an advance on those the MRH90s replaced.
Then there's the Eurocopter Tiger Armed Recce Helicopter. It's another example of an existing design reconfigured to meet Australian conditions and operating requirements. After considerable delays in getting the Tigers airworthy and operational, ongoing issues and the realisation that they couldn't perform the role that they were purchased for, the ADF is going to replace them with AH64E attack helicopters. An "off the shelf" purchase that will provide the ADF with a far more reliable and capable aircraft.
We don't have a huge defence budget but we do need reliable and capable defence assets. Blowing dollars on the wrong helicopters and being forced to replace them well before their anticipated service life is just p1ssing our defence budget away.