Aust. to ditch the MRH90
 

Surprise, surprise, we screwed it up again.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-...kus-/100526744

So, what percentage of the fault lies with the ADF side ( specs, procurement, maintenance etc..) and what percentage lies with the airframe and /or manufacturer ?

Is it a case of trying to 'Australianise' an airframe and failing ( yet again) ?

Super Seasprite, Tiger, MRH-90....not a good record.

Kiwi’s will probably pick them up for 1 cent in the dollar like their Seasprites? :D

“No Hope” 90?

Given what I seem to remember as reported problem with parts availability, parting them out may be the most cost effective return on investment.
But as you say, NZ seem canny purchasers of military gear.
Still, at present, only RAN replacing their MRH-90, so Aus Army will presumably get the spare airframes.

Don’t tell the French!

Will the French ambassador be returning to Australia or staying in France now?

Thing is though the Taipans for the navy are not for the ASW/ASUW role but more of Vertrep and amphibious support, as they replaced the legacy Sea King. if anything they should be asking for the MH-60S tbh, rather than the Romeo model.

cheers

I think production of the Sierra has finished

they need to get in touch with the guys at AceHawk Aerospace for the ML70; the in-country version of the VL-60

Well, there definitely is a trend… isn’t there????

We even tried to Ozzie-ise the Huey on initial purchase - it came fitted with Tacan, but the Really Clever People in purchasing said "Nah, we don't want that, they are always out in the boonies, away from our 6 Tacan stations. Take it out."
So, we paid for it to be in the airframe initially, then paid for it to be taken out.
Oops, with that heavy set gone from the nose area, the CG is out. Let's put a lump of lead in to balance it up.
We then paid for a lump of lead to be fitted. Really useful, lead is. Much more use than a serviceable Tacan set.

AC, another story that did the rounds was when the C-130 was first purchased TACAN was standard fit but there were no TACAN stations in Oz, $100,000 to Lockheed for rework to rip them out, so the story went. Navy was no better, when it purchased the Huey they came with the all beaut US dial any frequency you like radios, to make them compatible with the Sea Venom, Vampire, Gannet they ripped them out and replaced them with I think from memory it was called a TR1939 radio. It was said the 1939 was the date the radio was first put into service and was used in the Spitfires and Hurricanes during WWII, five channel, crystal controlled. To make sure the original radios couldn't be refitted, well not without a hell of a lot of work, the wiring looms had all been cut, it was said with garden shears, and I'm not too sure if that wasn't the truth, can't have unused cannon plugs flopping about I guess.

One does think that lesson's learned will be applied but no.
A bit like the expectations that histories error's will not be repeated. Unfortunately our expectations of people in power assume that they have the intelligence to know and apply said lessons.

From a now ex MRH-60 pilot the issue is the engines/gearbox/transmission. Minor repair/maintainence can be done by safran in sydney. Any major work requires them to be sent back to airbus in france which they are majorly behind in servicing. Taking up to 12 months to get the engines back

Onto the whole rotorcraft part of the ADF, they had a major review of it last year, this announcement is the first of few expected. The SF hate the taipans and the blackhawks were supposed to be retired this month. But I haven't seen anything announced about it, the chat was the army were wanting to get some MD-500's and pavehawks and extend the a retirement of blackhawks to cover the arrival of these

Surely its only a matter of time before the remaining Army MRH 90s are replaced by UH-60Ms in an FMS MOTS deal?

Surely the Australian MH90 debacle and the UK Puma replacement are begging for a AUKUS solution.