Returning briefly only to answer post #35.
TBM-L; it does not matter a bugger really what anybody else operates for SRT roles. The requirement should be about 'horses for courses' best suited to what we should have learned from 60 plus years of military air operations throughout the northern archipelago.
Respectfully Mate; do some research. There are around 500 or so DC3/Dakota/BT-67 still flying around the world today, including for military requirements, and the Penn Turbo program is a manufacturing rebuild of the Caribou. Similarly for the Huey II which derives from an ongoing Bell Helicopter rebuild/enhancement program and there are still around 5,000 Hotel model Iroquois flying in military and civilian roles around the world with upwards of 200 Huey II now in military and civilian service with long supportability envisaged.
It is very easy to write a requirement in Canberra around whatever a particular lobbyist is peddling and thus scratch other competitors because they do not exactly equate. That was going on during my time in that place.
Just consider these estimated unit cost numbers without making any allowance for presumed whole of life support.
50 x Huey II would cost around $100million and another $100million would get maybe 10 BT-67 plus 10 Turbo-'Bou, depending on configuration requirements.
Assuming unit cost of MRH90 and C-27 Spartan similar, 46 x MRH90 plus 10 x C-27 Spartan may have an overall unit cost of around $1.7billion for 56 airframes.
So; about $200million for 70 basic reliable and easily maintainable platforms versus around $1.7billion for 56 more complex and somewhat unproven airframes that will foreseeably be more difficult to maintain and support in remote operating environs.
Its a no-brainer; but thinking outside the square and cost-effectively seems to be beyond that lot in Canberra.
There are no issues with airframe soundness for either the BT-67 or Turbo-Caribou otherwise they would not have received airworthiness certification.
I rest my case. Happy New Year!
Last edited by Bushranger 71; 31st Dec 2011 at 20:50.
Reason: Readability