Australia: European "Taipan" helicopters will be replaced by American equipment

A military helicopter MRH90 "Taipan" flies over the floods above the city of Lismore (New South Wales), February 28, 2022. These devices will therefore be scrapped 13 years earlier than planned.

AFP - BRADLEY RICHARDSON

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

Further disappointment for the European arms industry in Australia, where the Minister of Defense today confirmed his intention to replace its fleet of

European-designed

Taipan helicopters with American

Black Hawks

.

It is therefore a contract of more than two billion euros which escapes the NH INdustries consortium, which brings together Airbus Helicopters, Fokker and the Leonardo group. 

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With our correspondent in Australia,

Grégory Plesse

As early as 2021, the Australian government had announced its intention to get rid of the MRH90

Taipan

helicopters , a money pit and an inexhaustible source of problems for the army since their acquisition in 2004.

Many maintenance issues 

This was today confirmed by RIchard Marles, the Labor Defense Minister.

40 American Sikorsky UH-60

Black Hawks

will therefore replace these European helicopters, with which the Minister recalled that the Australian army had encountered numerous problems with maintenance and the supply of spare parts. 

The

Taipans

will therefore be scrapped thirteen years earlier than planned and this is a new blow for the NH Industries consortium, which has already been notified in June 2022 of the cancellation of a contract for fourteen helicopters by Norway, overwhelmed by the accumulation of delivery delays. 

Light armored vehicles

Australia, which in 2021 canceled a mega contract for French-designed submarines, has not yet severed all ties with European armaments.

Its light armored vehicles, the

Bushmaster

and the

Hawkei

, and with which they are very satisfied, just like the Ukrainians to whom Australia has delivered some specimens, are manufactured by the French Thalès.

►Also read

: Australia: one year after the signing of the Aukus pact, the new submarines are far from arriving

 (

September 15, 2022

)

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