Re: Hellfire test with Aussie tiger
Do I think the Tiger is a good A/C ? Yes , But I still prefer the AH64D without the radar or the AH1Z, why ? As I said the Tiger is under powered and I believe short ranged for Australia , the Tiger will be based in Darwin were the average temp is between 30-35oC all year round and down at mount Bundy over 40oC, the Tiger cannot hover at gross weight in these temps and french engines don't like high ambiant temps I have worked on Makilas,Arriels, Turmos and other french engines in high temp areas and they drop there bundal when its too hot (over 35) while the PT6 ,CT7/T700 are affected but not anywere the same degree, The Spanish at least bought the uprated engine for there Tigers (15% more power), now if the Aussie Army put partical seperators on the Tiger taking approx 10% power off the A/C you have an underpowed dog!! and they will need the partical seperators operating in the NT, in the dust, the T700 in the S70/AH64/AH1 have the IPS system and they still have problems.
Interoperability and fleet comanality is the key , when the CH47 's were upgraded to D models all the modsfitted by the RAAF and anything differant to a US Army Chinook was removed, so we could work side by side with US forces, and after the Blackhawk purchase were the Aussie S70 is not the same as a UH60 causing interoperability problems, but have we learned ? NO we buy what is a very nice little gunship which is great for Europe which we will make work after a lot of hard work to intergrate systems that the French and Germans aren't interested in, we will only have 22 on the other side of the world from support (and most people in the Helo industry know how well the French support there products!!!) when any nation we will work with in this part of the world will have AH64's or AH1's.
A good a/c just the wrong choice for Australia.