The ADF buys another Lemon

[emergov]

Must look at pprune more often

AFGAN, you know as well as anyone that the ADF rules for public comment will limit comment from current serving members. I am assuming you are a civilian with ties to a serving member? Fora like these which have a tendency to become fodder for lazy journalists, like just after Indy in 2004.

But, as someone who is close to the project, I will refute your claims that 'those at the coal face' have no faith in the machine, and that noone involved will defend the machine. I can only assume you have been talking to the few lower-level operators who would just rather we had a Black Hawk. MRH 90 has not flown as much as planned. The spares support has not been as good as expected. The type certification (none of which is being conducted by the ADF) has not gone as smoothly as we would have liked. The machine will have some limitations in service. These are all true statements.

Statements like 'this aircraft is a lemon' and 'this is a civilian helicopter' are neither true nor helpful. The reason the NH 90 is certified to a common, european civilian specification is because there are so many countries involved as partners in the project. They chose a civilian spec to allow the thing to be flown in the airspace where all military hardware spends 90% of its time. Do not confuse this with the design, crashworthiness or utility of the aircraft.

Some of the US MILSPEC stuff we put so much faith in is not all it's cracked up to be anyway. The AH1Z blades were 'certified' to take a 23mm strike based on computer modelling, and failed at 20mm. They were MILSPEC. The US military helmet protection standard has been revised many times, but is based on a 1/2 inch blade striking the helmet at a certain force. The European spec (used to certify the TOP OWL) uses a spike with a 0.5mm tip at the same force. Just because the NH 90 doesn't meet MILSPEC, doesn't mean it's inferior. In any case, there is nothing to hit your helmet on in the MRH 90 - not so the UH 60.

Look, if someone in Army did get a sudden visit from the good idea fairy after Sikorsky decided to actually compete for the contract, that's great. But A$2.5BN projects do not get turned around just because some brave staff officer shouts 'stop the presses!'. You are absolutely correct that there are political and national considerations involved in big ticket items like AIR 9000, and it has ever been so. There is a mandatory minimum level of Australian industry involvement in every major acquisition, for very solid national strategic reasons. Usually this means the up front cost and complexity of the project is increased. These are political decisions. Defence is a political business. Get used to it.

Crying about the shoulda/coulda is fabulous fun, and allows every retired pilot and engineer to sit back and mumble self righteously to themselves. But if we do have a Royal Commission into these projects, and they are scrapped, and we all cry 'too right' as we drink dollar pots down the RSL, then in 10 years we will be another Billion dollars in the hole, and we still will not have fielded a capability. With the GWOT on, there is not a whole load of spare capacity over at Sikorsky. And let's not kid ourselves about the similarities between our red-headed bastard UH60/S70s and the current versions.

We will have 46 MRH 90s for about 30 years. The Black Hawk has lasted us 20, and was around for 10 before that. The Huey was retired, about 10 years overdue, at 40. The ADF, for better or for worse, has a commitment to buy the best technology and most modern equipment available. The MRH 90 happens to be that aircraft in the utility world. Noone wants to be tooling around in a 60-year old design (Caribou pilots excepted).

There is no Irony in AIR 9000, it just hasn't really started yet. We will end up with Tiger, MRH 90, either NFH 90 or a newer Seahawk, Chinook and a training helicopter. This will take a few years, so just cool your jets a bit. It's certainly better than the 9 types we had a while back.

There. Someone who is close to the project who is prepared to stand up for both the Project, and the aircraft. The tactical mission is not the only consideration when buying military aircraft, just the main one. MRH 90 happens to do it better, with a bigger cabin than the Black Hawk variant Sikorsky was offering. In 10 years, when the next uber Hawk appears, this conversation will be just as unproductive, because we have already bought our utility helicopter.