Page 10 - Australian Defence Magazine June 2021

10 NEWS REVIEW INDUSTRY UPDATE
JUNE 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
DEFENCE MULLS BLACK HAWK DISPOSAL STRATEGY
29 helicopters listed (three ‘Con- figuration 1’ and one ‘Configuration 2’) are “more likely to be removed from the sale”. All helicopters will be made available with their associated CAMM2 maintenance data.
The spares inventory, as of March 5, in- cluded 889,623 non-rotable, and 12,390 rotable items with total book values of $47 million and $71 million respectively.
Previously Defence had advised ADM that 34 aircraft (i.e. all surviving air- frames) would be disposed of, including helicopters earmarked for the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, the Museum of Army Flying at Oakey, the RAAF Mu- seum at Point Cook and the RAAF Avia- tion Heritage Centre at Amberley.
To further confuse matters, the Com- monwealth Government announced in June 2018 that two Black Hawks will be donated to the NSW Rural Fire Service.
Closing time for the RFS is 1630 AEST on May 21, 2021.
“Defence does not guarantee that any assets will be offered for sale within a certain timeframe, or indeed if at all”
ABOVE LEFT: The RFS does not make clear whether Defence will actually sell the helicopters.
NIGEL PITTAWAY | MELBOURNE
DEFENCE released as Request for Solu- tions (RFS) on March 25, advising the possible sale of up to 27 ex-Army Sikor- sky S-70A-9 Black Hawk helicopters and associated spares and equipment, as the type is retired from service in coming months.
Aircraft are expected to come up for disposal between July 2021 and Decem- ber 2022, when the final Black Hawk is expected to be retired. The helicopter has been replaced as Army’s primary bat- tlefield helicopter by the NHI (Airbus) MRH 90 Taipan multi-role helicopter (MRH). The Commonwealth’s prefer- ence is to sell the helicopters and associ- ated inventory to either one purchaser, or as few purchasers as practicable.
However, the document makes it clear that Defence does not guarantee that any assets will be offered for sale within a certain timeframe, or indeed if at all. Furthermore, it says that the number of assets may vary due to Commonwealth requirements and/or its commitments to other recipients, such as museums.
Similar to the US Army’s UH-60A Black Hawk variant, Australia acquired 39 S-70A-9 helicopters from 1988 to be assembled at Bankstown by Hawker De Havilland. The type was commissioned into service with 9 Sqn RAAF in Sep- tember 1988, but the battlefield helicop- ter capability was transferred to Army control in 1989. To date, five Black
Hawks have been lost in accidents. Twenty-nine helicopters are listed in the RFS (albeit with a maximum of 27 to eventually be sold), comprising 19 ‘Con- figuration 1’ aircraft and 10 ‘Configura- tion 2’ helicopters which are fitted for, but not with, an Electronic Warfare Self Protection (EWSP) suite delivered under
Project Echidna (Air 5416).
The RFS advises that four of the
SMES SECURE CONTRACTS THROUGH NEW INDUSTRY ENGAGEMENT INITIATIVE
THE government has awarded up to $3.6 million in contracts to 12 SMEs as part of a new industry engagement initiative.
The initiative, called the Industry Com- petitive Evaluation Research Agreement (ICERA), was launched in August last year.
The ICERA contracts will provide $36 million over six years, funded through De- fence’s Next Generation Technologies Fund (NGTF), with the $3.6 million an- nounced in the first round of contracts.
Six of the 22 successful ICERA contracts focused on creating ‘in- novative cyber security capabilities.’ The other research projects cover enhanced human performance, in- tegrated ISR, quantum technologies and advanced sensors. Two of these
RIGHT: Members of the Cryoclock team on site at the JORN radar.
initial ICERA partnerships are with busi- nesses new to Defence.
The following 12 ICERA partners will receive up to $300,000 each: Breakaway Consulting, InfoSect, Insight Via Artificial Intelligence, Jaywick Group, Mentum Sys- tems, Spinlock Security, Critus, Quantita- tive, Biosensis, Fivecast, Safran Electron- ics & Defence Australasia, and Cryoclock.
CRYOCLOCK VIA TWITTER
NIGEL PITTAWAY