Excellent quote

Excellent quote from a reader known as, "Bushranger":

"The so-called Helicopter Strategic Master Plan is an ongoing disaster that has arguably squandered billions of dollars and diminished Australia's military capacity."

From a different time:

RNZAF helicopters

These are the older ones. But they put on a nice display... looks good when viewed large.

New York's last Vietnam War helicopter pilot honored

The Army and National Guard got top value for the dollar out of this guy...

H/T-Michael

Another Australian Defence Helicopter Needs Discussion Thread

For some interesting discussion, let us start up the topic again of a helicopter roadmap for the ADF. Something that might make sense for the next defence white paper but yet could be delivered inside of a few years.

We can start with Raytheon's consideration of the AIR9000 helicopter training requirement.

..."the large cockpit of the Bell 429 is capable of handling the full range of pilot candidates with the most spacious and useful rear cabin in its class."

DMO is even open for suggestions on numbers.

Helicopters on project of concern list--Frigate upgrade shows progress

The expensive and poorly managed MRH-90 helicopter project has made its way on to the project of concern list.

Defence Minister Stephen Smith said on Monday the project had experienced delays of some two years with a risk of further delays and recently one aircraft suffered a major engine failure.

"The MRH project has encountered a number of significant technical issues, which have now triggered early indicators and warnings thresholds for schedule and contractor performance," he said in a statement.

Defence Materiel Organisation acting chief executive Warren King had recommended the project be listed as a project of concern and the government had agreed.

"Our policy objective here is a successful project and that is why we have reformed and improved and enhanced the project of concern arrangement with a very strong focus on remediation," he said.

The project of concern list now covers nine projects, headed by sustainment of the navy's Collins submarines.

Some good news: the Frigate upgrade program is off the project of concern list and is showing progress. Frigate class warships are highly useful for Australia's naval security needs.

More confusion with Australia's helicopter roadmap

It is always good to have an operator (past or present) put their eye on the Defence White Paper of 2009. Or at least an operator that hasn't gone native to the Defence bureaucracy.

One significant quote was found by Bushranger on this this forum. Read all of his posts on that link.

That feat was accomplished in the late 1960s, yet complied with the Operational Flexibility intent of DWP2009, Chapter 8.61 - Australia cannot afford to maintain a large number of narrowly applicable capabilities. The future development of the ADF is to emphasise, wherever possible, operational flexibility and multi-role employment in the ADF's systems, platforms and organisations. This might involve, for example, achieving greater platform flexibility by way of inter-changeable modular design and construction techniques.

He also has the best short summary of why the Sea Sprite for Australia died.

Also what is surprising is the stripped-not-equipped approach to Australia's purchase of the Romeo. I am surprised at the idea of not keeping full ASW ability on this airframe. The problem is when you need ASW ability on the airframe, you also need a well trained community of ASW operators that have been created by lots of peacetime training.

The submarine population in the Pacific Rim is growing not diminishing.

Bushranger makes a good argument that the Sierra would have been over-all, a better value.

Diagnostic review of MRH-90 continues

Why is it so difficult for Defence to procure helicopters?

This from ADM about the NRH-90 of which we will learn more by the end of October.

"A second diagnostic review of the MRH-90 Helicopter has been ordered to examine the effectiveness of the action taken and whether further action is necessary."

Not a glowing statement I see.

The review is part of this periodic meeting relating to the Project of Concern list.

"Minister for Defence Materiel Jason Clare today begins a two-day round of meetings with senior Defence officials and CEOs of companies which have projects on the Projects of Concern list."

What is the "capability" of Defence given all the hype and money spent?

Not much. And in recent history, no party has been especially useful for this portfolio of waste.

.

Helicopters for the ADF thread...

Starting this post to put forward the helicopter knowledge of some of our readers like Bushranger; and, starting out with one of his quotes from another post below. I tend to agree. ADF needs a low cost effective solution to do most of the farm chores; even if the Defence bureaucracy and industry prefer gold-plated "solutions" that don't do much especially well. Where, we are now on the path to having a small number of expensive helicopter designs that fail at trying to reinvent the wheel.

----

"The Hotel model Iroquois upgraded to Huey II and in enhanced Bushranger gunship configuration with full fuel and with a 4 man crew would carry: 9,000 rounds of 7.62mm for twin miniguns, 3,000 rounds for twin doorguns both sides and 500 rounds of 20mm HE for twin low recoil podded NC621 cannon. All of that and around 600 pounds availability for optional fits of FLIR, EOTS, defensive suites, datalink, etcetera. At MOGW, it can hover in ground effect at around 12,000 feet AMSL in ISA+20C. That number crunching is based on info provided by Bell Helicopter.

As at 2007, there were over 5,000 Hotel model Iroquois still in service worldwide and see this link for the AMARC catalogue: http://www.amarcexperience.com/ScrapyardsDBSearch.asp?Action=2 - there are likely many more available. Some of the operable ADF fleet are still in storage awaiting disposal.

A Hotel model acquired by Bell from stored reserves and put through their Huey II upgrade program to virtually 'as new' condition costs around $2million, about one tenth of a UH-60M Blackhawk. Unit cost of the Tiger and MRH90 seem rubbery and much higher.

In 2010, I wrote to MinDef pointing out that the ADF was sacrificing Kiowa recce, Iroquois utility and gunship capabilities plus Blackhawk, albeit the latter is undesirably about twice as heavy as a Huey II. The Tiger is inadequate for both the armed scout and gunship roles (I can explain separately) and the MRH90 is categorised as a medium lift platform. I suggested spending just $100million on 50 Huey II to recover diminishing capabilities. The response from a MinDef Advisor was that the Huey II does not meet Australian DoD crashworthiness standards even though increasing numbers (northwards of 200) are entering service around the world in multiple military and civil aviation agency roles.

Australian defence planners seem unappreciative that battlefield helos largely perform pretty basic roles and should desirably be cost-effective and readily maintainable in remote harsh operating locations, like PNG. Also; the increasing technical complexity of all the expensive hardware being acquired, whether aircraft, warships or whatever, is going to drive ADF operating costs off the clock.

Alas, the hard-earned aircraft operating lessons acquired post-WW2 in our rugged wet tropics near neighbourhood and the invaluable combat experience of the Vietnam War seem lost within the 'group thinking' that prevails in Canberra."

Useful helicopters needed for Defence

Australia may have gotten rid of the old Huey, but that does not mean we still don’t need its utility.

It is a shame that Defence almost always reaches for the gold-plated answer when procuring something.

In operations other than war and even low intensity conflicts, the new Huey UH-1Y could provide a lot of use for a variety of Australian operations. That includes home/regional disaster events.

It has done well in Afghanistan.

The Y is powerful in its class; made to meet the requirements of the United States Marine Corps and as an off-the-shelf buy has low procurement risk, even for the DMO.

It is not a super helicopter for every solution. It is a very good and proven helicopter for a lot of situations that don’t require the big and more expensive machines.

Defence selects U.S. made Romeo helicopter for the Navy

Given the great unpleasantness in procurement and the general trend that it is safer if DMO doesn't do too much to hurt their brain, Defence has decided for the off-the-shelf U.S.-made Romeo helicopter for the Navy over the Euro contender. This one was predictable.

via Defence

Stephen Smith MP
Minister for Defence

Jason Clare MP
Minister for Defence Materiel

New Naval Combat Helicopters

Minister for Defence Stephen Smith and Minister for Defence Materiel Jason Clare today announced that the Australian Government had approved the acquisition of 24 MH-60R Seahawk ‘Romeo’ naval combat helicopters at a cost of over $3 billion.

The 2009 Defence White Paper committed the Government to equipping naval warships with a new combat helicopter capable of conducting a range of maritime misions with advanced anti-submarine warfare capabilities and the ability to fire air-to-surface missiles.

This announcement delivers on that commitment.

The new helicopters will replace the Navy’s current combat helicopter capability provided by 16 Seahawk S-70B-2 helicopters and will also provide the air to surface strike capability which was to have been provided by the cancelled Seasprite program.

This decision follows a 15-month competitive acquisition process involving the Sikorsky-Lockheed Martin built MH-60R and the NATO Helicopter Industries NH90 NFH assembled by Australian Aerospace.

This competitive process has ensured value for money for the tax payer.

The Australian Government has chosen the ‘Romeo’ helicopter because it represents the best value for money for taxpayers and was the lowest risk option.

The ‘Romeo’ is a proven capability currently operated by the United States Navy. The United States Navy has accepted around 100 ‘Romeos’ which have accumulated 90,000 flying hours, including on operational deployments.

Interoperability with Australia’s Alliance partner, the United States, is also a significant advantage of this helicopter.

The helicopters are largely military off-the-shelf built by Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin and will be purchased through the Foreign Military Sales process from the US Navy.

Defence has signed a Letter of Agreement for the acquisition with the United States Government.

The first two helicopters will arrive in mid-2014 for testing and evaluation with operations expected to commence in mid-2015.

Acquisition of 24 ‘Romeos’ means that Navy will have the capacity to provide at least eight warships with a combat helicopter at the same time, including ANZAC Class frigates and the new Air Warfare Destroyers. The remainder will be based at HMAS Albatross in Nowra, New South Wales, and will be in various stages of the regular maintenance and training cycle.

They will be equipped with a highly sophisticated combat systems designed to employ Hellfire air-to-surface missile and the Mark 54 anti-submarine torpedo.

The Government will work with Australian Small-to-Medium Enterprises to identify opportunities to form part of the ‘Romeo’ global supply chain.

The Government has established a joint working group between Defence and the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research to progress Australian industry involvement in the project.