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Australia will ditch its European-built MRH-90 Taipan helicopters in favor of U.S.-built Black Hawks in a switcheroo mirroring the decision earlier this year to kill a deal with France and buy nuclear submarines from America.
Australian Minister of Defence Peter Dutton made the announcement on Dec. 10 that the country would retire its fleet of 46 MRH-90 early and replace them with a comparable number of Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawks.
“This morning I announced the Morrison Government’s decision to strengthen the Australian Army’s helicopter capability by formally requesting advice from the US on the acquisition of up to 40 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters to replace the MRH90 Taipans,” Dutton wrote on Twitter. “It is critically important there is a safe, reliable, and capable utility helicopter available for our service men and women into the future.”
This morning I announced the Morrison Government’s decision to strengthen the Australian Army’s helicopter capability by formally requesting advice from the US on the acquisition of up to 40 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters to replace the MRH90 Taipans. pic.twitter.com/RxqLNUTo2X
The Australian Army operates about 40 MRH-90s, based on the Airbus-built NH90, which it chose in 2004 over the Sikorsky UH-60M. The Taipan entered service in 2008 and will, as a result of the recent announcement, retire a decade ahead of schedule.
The NH90, built by the NHI Industries consortium that includes France’s Airbus, Italy’s Leonardo Helicopters and Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker, is in use by the German, Italian, French and Australian armed forces. The UH-60 is built by Sikorsky, now owned by Lockheed Martin, and is in service with more than 30 nations.
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Another six MRH-90s have been in service with the Royal Australian Navy since 2008. Both the Army and Navy versions suffered from insufficient availability and repeated operational groundings since they entered service. The navy in October announced it would buy a dozen more MH-60R Seahawks — it already has 24 of the marinized helicopters — to replace its MRH-90s.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison, in a Dec. 10 press conference, said the Taipan helicopters “weren’t meeting their marks.”
“Simple as that,” Morrison said, when asked what was behind the decision to ditch the Taipan in favor of Black Hawks. “We want to make sure that our defense forces have the best possible equipment to defend this country, and the Black Hawks will provide that. That’s a decision that we’ve taken together as a National Security Committee to ensure that we’re keeping Australians safe.”
The decision comes less than three months after Australia scuttled a deal to buy nuclear submarines from France, and instead announced plans to buy the boats from the United States. The trilateral AUKUS agreement between the U.S., U.K. and Australia greatly angered France. Morrison addressed the decision to buy U.S. Black Hawks in light of the AUKUS agreement.
“Australia has been lifting our effort when it comes to defending our nation and ensuring that our expenditure on defense is now over two percent and our commitments, particularly under the AUKUS agreement and moving towards the nuclear fulfilled submarines, I think demonstrates our commitment,” Morrison said. “It also demonstrates the relationships and partnerships that we’ve been able to build and particularly with the United States. But of course, we will continue to work with many other defense contractor suppliers, but in this case, sadly the Taipans didn’t do what we needed them to do, so we’ll get the things that we need to do it.”
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