Pentagon accelerates delivery of Black Hawk helicopters to Australia

The U.S. Department of Defense is accelerating the delivery of UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters to Australia, which were procured to replace Australia’s fleet of MRH-90 Taipan fleet, as soon as possible.

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After years of struggling with the multitude of logistical, parts quality and software problems that affected the availability and flight safety of its fleet of MRH-90 Taipan helicopters, the Australian Army decided that it was no longer worth investing resources in them and that they should be replaced by 40 American-made UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters.

On October 31, the US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd J. Austin III, received at the Pentagon the Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, Richard Marles, for a meeting on common security strategies in the Indo-Pacific and on various defense and modernization programs of the Australian Armed Forces, such as the purchase of the Black Hawks.

«The future of our relationship, and especially our defense cooperation, looks brighter than ever. We share a vision with our friends across the Indo-Pacific of a region that is free, open and secure. And we’re committed to making that vision a reality,» Austin said.

What are friends for?

On that occasion, Austin noted that some of the Black Hawks have already arrived in Australia, with others due to arrive at a later date. The Black Hawks are replacing Australia’s MRH-90 Taipan helicopters on a faster-than-normal schedule, following the crash of an MRH-90 in Queensland during the Talisman Sabre exercise on July 28, after which the Australian Ministry of Defense decided to ground all MRH-90s.

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Marles said Australia is «enormously grateful» to the United States for speeding the delivery of the Black Hawks. «This is something that we really appreciate, and is again, an example of America standing up in a moment which we really need it,» Marles said.

Benefit to other NH90 helicopter operators

Despite NH Industries’ attempts not to lose their customer, they were unable to reverse Canberra’s decision and instead proposed a plan for other NH90 users to benefit from the early decommissioning of the Taipan.

NHI announced that it will offer a proposal to the Commonwealth of Australia to support the phase-out of the MRH90 fleet. This will create a stock of parts that can be used by other operators, who continue to «successfully fly the aircraft around the world».