Australia plans to ditch European Taipan helicopters for US Black Hawks, months after Aukus pact
- Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia is improving its defence capabilities and the Airbus Taipans ‘weren’t meeting their marks’
- This comes less than three months after Australia cancelled a deal to buy French submarines in a switch that deeply angered Paris
Australia has 47 Taipan helicopters that were designed by Airbus and were supposed to last until 2037 but have been plagued with groundings. Australia will stop using them and buy 40 Lockheed Martin-designed helicopters in a switch that will cost A$7 billion (US$4.8 billion).
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia was improving its defence capabilities and had built good partnerships, particularly with the US.
“The Taipans weren’t meeting their marks. Simple as that,” Morrison said. “And we want to make sure that our defence forces have the best possible equipment to defend this country, and the Black Hawks will provide that.”
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Defence Minister Peter Dutton said the Black Hawks are much cheaper to fly and that officials have had concerns about the Taipan programme for the past decade.
“It’s had nine instances where it’s been unsuitable to fly, and I’m just not going to put our people in that position,” Dutton said.
The MRH90 Taipans are currently used as a utility helicopter by the army to support Special Operations and maritime capability.
Dutton said the new helicopters would bring Australia’s fleet more in line with that of the US, an important consideration given the instability in the region.
He described the UH-60 Black Hawk as the most widely used utility helicopter variant in the world, with Australia “exercising its right to understand what options are available to provide the necessary capability at a reasonable cost into the future”.
China has previously expressed anger over Australia’s submarine switch and said it was irresponsible of the US and Britain to export their nuclear technology.
Opposition politicians said the Australian government had wasted billions of dollars on poor decisions around many of its defence contracts.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
