I read the article linked, seems to me there are a couple of possibilities regarding what was reported:
1. The author is 100% correct and is reporting factually what is happening to the NH-90 fleet, and the events surrounding the replacement of the NH-90 in Australian service. Governments quite simply make the worst decisions regarding a lot of things, so parting out and disposing of otherwise useful (to someone) airframes wouldn’t be a uniquely stupid decision.
I look at what my government (USA) does regarding defense systems and shake my head fairly often. Just look at the debacle that all variants of the F-35 have turned out to be, as an example. The amount of $$$ burned on that system if maddening.
So to was the amount of equipment left in Afghanistan to be repurposed for Taliban use, its just too expensive to bring back home or take somewhere else.
So, would I be shocked at Australia giving away NH-90 parts and burying the stripped airframes? Nope. But there may be something else happening that is closer to the truth but not as wasteful?
2. Not all airframes are being stripped and buried. Maybe condition wise, there are issues with some airframes that render them not economically viable to retain or repair, for whatever reason, and those are indeed being stripped and buried? Maybe these were involved in previously unknown mishaps that didn’t cause death or bodily harm.
I can tell you from experience as it relates to the US Army, lots of things happen that don’t make it out into the news that are significant events damage wise. And the aircraft get repaired and put back into service(or sometimes not) and nobody but the service paying the bills and the people working on it know it ever happened.
As for the discussion of a nefarious cabal axing the NH-90 in favor of the Blackhawk, just because of some sort of nostalgia they have for it, I’ll agree that it’s just as possible as the reports surrounding the demise of the NH-90 aircraft themselves.
It could also be that those making this decision are correct and that the UH-60 is better for use in Australian service, and the nostalgia they are harkening back to was something that was more easily maintainable, available and fit for purpose for the missions that they find themselves doing.
Maybe Blackhawk is “like a farm tractor”, but not in the derogatory way the one anonymous ADF source in the article laments, because, let’s be real: the two machines are contemporaries in capability. They both have all the modern systems a frontline medium helicopter of today has to offer and fairly similar performance.
Just maybe it is “like a farm tractor” in the way that it stands up to the rigors of use in austere conditions that a frontline medium helicopter has to endure, in training or combat, and that’s what is driving this change?
The only other commentary from the article that I found interesting is the raising of the point, again, about Blackhawks lack of a float system. This seems an interesting point, and I honestly don’t know how many militaries have adopted such systems to their maritime helicopter fleets. A quick perusal of the internet did bring me up a link to a Taiwanese govt report, part of which I’ll quote below:
“Due to the history of the SH-60B/F and HH-60H floating systems, engine reliability improvements and MH-60R/S project upgrades, the floating system is not installed in the MH-60R and MH-60S. The integration of floating systems raises some safety risks, including the blocking of flight crews' emergency escape routes. Because of these risks, the MH-60R has never been designed to contain a floating system. The MH-60R is followed by the development of the MH-60S, and the floating system is not considered. The survival rate of the shipwreck was basically the same before and after the system was removed.”
At any rate, this has gone way long and honestly none of this really matters much in the long run. No aircraft is perfect for every situation and indeed some are running NH-90 with seemingly no issues, others aren’t and it appears ADF ran into something they couldn’t overcome.
FltMech