Page 20 - Australian Defence Magazine Feb 2020
P. 20

20 AIRPOWER HELICOPTERS
FEBRUARY 2020 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
THE company says abandoning the forthcoming Request for Tender (RFT) for a replacement armed reconnaissance helicopter and adopting its proposal under the Common- wealth’s Smart Buyer process will save the Australian tax- payer $3 billion between now and 2040.
It says the projected savings are based on the Common- wealth’s published budget for Land 4503 out to 2040 and its proposal – which includes a life of type extension program as well as an upgrade of Tiger’s avionics systems/sensors and the seven H145Ms – is also a low-risk means of achiev- ing Initial and Final Operational Capability milestones.
LAND 4503 GENESIS
One major surprise in the 2016 Defence White Paper was the singling out of Tiger for criticism, the only one of De- fence’s problematic programs to be so treated. This was followed up later in 2016 with a scathing report from the
The result has been that an ARH Capability Assurance Program (ARH CAP), which had been planned to keep Ti- ger abreast of technology, was dramatically scaled back to a what is now largely an obsolescence management activity to take Tiger out to a planned withdrawal date around 2028. Land 4503 was subsequently created to replace the ARH capability and the cost of the new project is reported to be $4 billion but, because the cost bands established within the former Defence Capability Plans have been removed in the current Integrated Investment Plan (IIP), this number is difficult to verify.
Nevertheless, the Commonwealth released a Request For Information (RFI) to industry for a replacement armed reconnaissance helicopter capability in July 2019, with a requirement for up to 29 proven, off the shelf helicopters. The subsequent RFT is expected to be released in 2022 (an election year), with down-select occurring in 2023 followed by an IOC in the 2026 timeframe and FOC in mid-2029.
COMPETITION HEATS UP
In response to the RFI, Airbus Asia Pacific announced on August 30 last year, that it would offer a ‘cost effective and innovative’ solution, centred upon the upgrading of Tiger. In early November 2019, Airbus Helicopters’ executive vice president Matthew Louvot revealed that the offer would also include seven H145Ms, which are in addition to those included in the company’s bid for Army’s Land 2097 light special operations helicopters competition.
In early September 2019, Boeing Defence Australia an- nounced it had submitted a proposal based around the lat- est (Version 6) production Boeing’s AH-64E Apache attack
BELOW: Despite its well known troubled past, the Tiger is performing better on many fronts.
“THE COMMONWEALTH RELEASED AN RFI TO INDUSTRY FOR A REPLACEMENT ARMED RECONNAISSANCE HELICOPTER CAPABILITY IN JULY 2019, WITH A REQUIREMENT FOR UP TO 29 PROVEN, OFF THE SHELF HELICOPTERS.”
Australian National Audit Of- fice (ANAO) and together the two official documents have done much to tarnish Tiger’s reputation in the eyes of both the public and (it would appear) senior government leadership.
The Tiger underwent a trou- bled gestation since first enter- ing service in 2004 and over the years it has justifiably been criticised for being technologi- cally immature at introduction and having both a high cost of
ownership and poor availability. By 2016 however, it had arguably turned the corner and showing encouraging signs of improvement and its inclusion in the White Paper an- ecdotally took even senior Defence leadership by surprise.
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