Originally Posted by
helispotter
Following on from my previous question about the timing of the (re)introduction of the Blackhawks, I noticed two new threads under the "Military Aviation" forum that also discuss MRH90 retirement and apparent stop gap measures. One contains article by Daniel Hurst from The Guardian which indicates: "While 12 of them (UH-60M) will be here by the end of 2024, the remaining 28 will arrive in staged deliveries between 2025 and 2029".
That is a long time to return to full strength, if measured purely in terms of helicopter numbers. You have to wonder what case was made by the Army hierarchy to the government about managing the capability gap during those years given the withdrawal and then apparent swift parting out of MRH90s?
Government apparently wasn't impressed by Navy not being able to field an amphibious response to Cyclone Yasi years back. Will it this time be Army that isn't able to field a capability? But with government this time having fairly obvious prior knowledge of a gap?
We barely reached 40-50% serviceability with the MRH anyway so even if we have lesser numbers of UH-60's we will probably still have a better number of assets on line compared to MRH.