TSAMTO, December 20. Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton has announced plans to purchase up to 40 UH-60M Black Hawk multipurpose helicopters from Sikorsky to replace the fleet of existing MRH-90 Taipan produced by NH Industry.
According to Defense News, this will be the next stage of updating the helicopter fleet after the decision made by Prime Minister Scott Morrison to replace the Tiger ARH (Armed Reconnaissance Helicopters) attack helicopters with AH-64E Apache Guardian attack helicopters of the American Boeing.
MRH-90 helicopters are currently used by the Australian Ground Forces as transport vehicles, as well as by the Navy as supply helicopters. The first of the 47 MRH-90 was put into service in December 2007 and was supposed to replace several types of helicopters that were then in service, including the S-70A-9 Black Hawk, UH-1H Iroquois and Sea King Mk.50A/B.
However, the last S-70A-9 "Black Hawk" were written off only this month due to delays with the necessary modifications of the MRH-90 to meet the needs of special forces. It was expected that the MRH-90 helicopters would remain in operation at least until 2037, however, due to unsatisfactory readiness for use and high operating costs, since November 2011, the fleet of these helicopters has been included in the list of government projects of "concern".
Thus, according to the Minister, despite efforts to restore the operational readiness of the MRH-90 by the Ministry of Defense and Industry, "the MRH-90 fleet will not provide the necessary availability and cost of operation before the planned decommissioning date."
P. Dutton did not disclose the exact timing or cost of the acquisition of the UH-60M Black Hawk, but said that "Australian taxpayers will save about 2.5 billion on this. Austr. dollars ($1.8 billion) in the period up to 2037."
