Department concedes fault found in Taipan chopper could have led to ‘catastrophic consequences’
Australia’s defence department has revealed it is spending $37m to hire private helicopters as it grapples with low availability of the trouble-plagued Taipan choppers.
The move comes as defence officials concede a fault found in one of the helicopters in 2019 – when it was on its way to pick up the Australian defence force chief, Angus Campbell – could have led to “catastrophic consequences” if left unfixed.
It has prompted the opposition to blast the Howard government-era acquisition of the Multi-Role Helicopters (MRH90), also known as Taipans, as “a farce from go to whoa”.
Australia has bought 47 of the Taipans as a replacement for the Australian defence force’s Black Hawk and Sea King helicopter fleets, but the multi-billion-dollar acquisition has been listed as a “project of concern” since 2011.
The entire fleet was grounded in 2019 amid serious concerns about the tail rotor blades, and 27 aircraft were grounded last year to fix cabin sliding door rails.
The defence department estimates the total cost of the MRH90 program will be $15bn by the time the helicopters are due to be withdrawn from service in 2037, including $3.7bn for the purchase and $11.3bn to sustain them.
Defence said it had now signed a contract to lease two Leonardo AW139 helicopters from Helicorp, known as Toll Helicopters.
“The total cost of the contract, until 30 June 2023, is $37 million,” the department said in a new response to questions on notice from the last round of Senate estimates hearings.
The contract, signed in February, includes an option of extending it by a further two years after that deadline.
Labor’s assistant defence spokesperson, Pat Conroy, said the $37m contract for private helicopter hire was “beyond a joke” and the entire project had been “a disaster”.
“It demonstrates that this government has been incapable of fixing the problem with these helicopters,” Conroy said.
“It shows that this is another Band-Aid on top of the tens of millions of dollars they’ve spent trying to fix the door, the cargo hook, the machine gun mount – just a litany of errors”.
When asked to respond to the criticism, a defence department spokesperson told Guardian Australia the army had leased the commercial aircraft “due to ongoing challenges with the MRH90 platform”.
“That lease is funded by money from MRH90 sustainment budget that has been redirected due to insufficient flying hours,” the spokesperson said.
“Army aircrew will be able to develop advanced flying skills through training on the leased helicopters. These skills are equally applicable for flying combat helicopters like the MRH90 Taipan, ARH Tiger and CH-47F Chinook.”
Australia’s MRH90 Taipans collectively logged 5,168 flying hours in the 2019-20 financial year, which was much lower than the previous estimate of 9,270 hours.
The defence department’s most recent annual report blamed the “significant” reduction on “technical issues and a poorly performing supply chain and support system limiting the availability of aircraft to the operational units”.
In other responses to questions on notice, the defence department also explained the technical issue that had sparked the grounding of the fleet in mid-2019.
It said an MRH90 departing from HMAS Adelaide on 11 July 2019 “experienced abnormal vibrations in flight and returned” to the ship.
The department did not deny a previous report in the Townsville Bulletin that the helicopter had been on its way to pick up Campbell, but noted that “no injuries to personnel were sustained”.
“On inspection, a tail rotor blade had sustained significant damage that, if it continued to operate, could reasonably have resulted in catastrophic consequences,” the department said.
“As a result, the MRH90 fleet was grounded with flying only reinstated following progressive modification of tail rotor blades to a new configuration.”
The department said the original manufacturer – NATO Helicopter Industries – had provided a solution for the problem, with the modification conducted by Airbus Australia Pacific New Zealand.
It said the manufacturers had covered the cost of that fix “due to the unsafe condition of the old blades”.
The department also confirmed 27 aircraft were grounded between March and May last year, after some cabin sliding door rails were deemed unserviceable.
In that case, no more than 15 aircraft were grounded at any one time, with an average of 8.4 unserviceable days per aircraft, the department said.
In October last year, the aircraft received yet another burst of negative publicity, when defence officials conceded the door was not wide enough to enable the safe exit of personnel from the helicopter while it was firing.
Conroy said the helicopters had been beset by a variety of problems, which stemmed from the Howard government’s failure to understand the cost and complexity of the program when it signed off on the acquisition.
He said the current government had “taken its eye off the ball, partly because of the revolving door of ministers” in the defence portfolio, which most recently had seen Peter Dutton replace Linda Reynolds.
“So the pressure has gone off the contractor and Defence to find a fix for it – and that means that taxpayers are paying tens of millions of dollars extra and our soldiers aren’t getting the helicopter they were promised,” Conroy said.
While the manufacturer needed to take a significant share of responsibility, he said, “equally Defence and the government have not been pushing them enough”.
Dutton was also offered the opportunity to respond to the comments.
