Helicopters: Australian Aerospace launches MRH90 line

1 June 2007

By Gregor Ferguson

The ADF's $6 billion program to re-capitalise and rationalise its helicopter fleet passed a symbolic milestone May 2. However, key aspects of the program remain unresolved, especially the fate of the RAN's troubled Super Seasprites.

The Minister for Defence, Dr Brendan Nelson, on May 2 opened the MRH90 helicopter Final Assembly Line in Brisbane where Australian Aerospace Pty Ltd will assemble and flight test 42 aircraft destined for the Australian Army and Royal Australian Navy.

The company is already using this facility to assemble and test the Army's new fleet of Eurocopter Tiger Armed Reconnaissance Helicopters (ARH).

The MRH90 is derived from the NH90 helicopter manufactured by NH Industries in Europe. The ADF has ordered 46 MRH90s, worth $4.2 billion, from Eurocopter, four of which will be built in France.

These will replace the Army's current fleet of 35 Sikorsky S-70A Blackhawks and 12 UH-1H Iroquois and the RAN's remaining six Westland Sea King Mk50 utility helicopters. They will be used in both the battlefield and amphibious assault roles, flying off the RAN's planned fleet of two amphibious landing ships which are due to enter service from 2013.

According to Brigadier Andrew Dudgeon, Director General Army Aviation, the MRH90 will be a key element of Australia's evolving Hardened and Networked Army concept. Australian Army Aviation, he said, is going, "Full steam ahead for [first delivery] at the end of the year. [Air 9000] brings an additional squadron of helicopters to Australia in addition to replacing the Black Hawk and Sea King. It can carry more people greater distances in a more digitally connected helicopter."

The first Australian-assembled aircraft is due for delivery in December 2008, with deliveries due to run at seven to nine aircraft per year, concluding in 2014.

"The MRH90 program will deliver a significant boost to Australian industry with a package worth in excess of $1.2 billion, enhancing the work initiated under the Tiger project to transfer technologies to industry and the participation of local companies in the global supply chain," Nelson said as he symbolically installed a minor component on the first MRH90 airframe.

The Australian Army is currently training instructors for its Tiger ARH fleet; it ordered 22 aircraft worth $1.9 billion, in December 2000 to replace its ageing UH-1H Bushranger gunships and Bell 206 Kiowa light observation helicopters; the first of these was delivered from Marignane in December 2004, but delays in type certification of the French and German Tiger helicopter fleets have also held up Australia's program, which will see 18 of the Tigers assembled in Brisbane.

Six Tigers have been accepted into service thus far with a further five slated for delivery through 2007. The last is already undergoing final assembly in Brisbane and will be delivered next year, and the first Tiger squadron will be fully operational in 2010.

Project Air 9000 will also see a $450 million Australian dollar upgrade to the Australian Army's six CH-47D Chinook helicopters. These aircraft have been heavily tasked over the past four years supporting Australian Special Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The uncertainties in Project Air 9000 relate to the RAN's helicopter fleet; as well as the Sea King, which will be replaced by the MRH90, the RAN operates 16 S-70B Sea Hawks which equip its FFG-7 frigates.

The RAN is awaiting a decision by the Federal cabinet on the future of the 11 Kaman Super Seasprites ordered in 1997 at a cost of $1.003 billion but which have yet to enter service.

The helicopters, which were intended to operate aboard the RAN's eight Anzac-class frigates, have been bedevilled by software integration problems in their complex Integrated Tactical Avionics System (ITAS) as well as serious glitches in their new digital flight control systems. The Anzac frigates currently embark Seahawks and Squirrel training aircraft instead.

Nelson was expected to announce earlier this year the cancellation of the Super Seasprite program and the purchase of a replacement, but has now deferred a decision until late this year - probably after Federal election which is widely expected to take place in October.

He said on 2 May in Brisbane, "I've been carefully examining this project myself for about a year. The government is ... continuing to examine it very closely and until such time as we do make an announcement on the way ahead, or otherwise, with Super Seasprite we just continue to work with the contractor, Kaman."

The RAN is currently mulling a $450 million Australian dollar mid-life upgrade for its Seahawks to keep them in service for a further 10 years; a replacement is due to start entering service between 2017 and 2019 at an estimated cost of between $2.5 and $3.5 billion.

Notwithstanding the ADF's commitment to the NH90 family of helicopters, Nelson quashed speculation that the Navy's Seahawks could be replaced early by the NFH90 maritime helicopter in the near term. He told Defense News 2 May: "Our Seahawk fleet and, should we continue with it, also our Seasprites are our principal aircraft for anti-ship and anti-submarine warfare."

The Seahawks will equip the RAN's FFG-7 frigates until they retire at the end of the next decade; but no decision has been made as yet on which helicopter will equip the RAN's three new Air Warfare Destroyers which are scheduled to enter service from 2013.