An Australian Army soldier helps people evacuate onto a Blackhawk helicopter during Operation Bushfire Assist 19-20. (ADF Cpl. Nicole Dorrett)
SYDNEY — One month after the United States Army scrapped plans to buy more conventional helicopters in favor of longer-range tiltrotors, Australia’s military officially decided to replace its Airbus Taipan helicopters with 40 Black Hawk helos.
The roughly $2.8 billion AUD (approximately $2 billion USD) deal would “be a crucial element for us to protect Australia’s sovereignty, and deliver foreign policy objectives, including providing humanitarian assistance and disaster relief,” the head of the Australian army’s land capability, Maj. Gen. Jeremy King, said in a statement announcing the purchase. “The Black Hawk is a reliable, proven and mature platform supported by a robust global supply chain.”
While it is certainly true that the Lockheed Martin-built Black Hawk is proven, and there is a global supply chain in place, it is also true that the American land capability managers at the Army picked Bell Textron’s tiltrotor in December to replace America’s own Black Hawk fleet in the long run. That decision, which has since been protested by the losing team of Sikorsky and Boeing, gave Bell Textron a massive victory not just in the US but with the global community of 28 Black Hawk operators, many of whom are likely to follow the US Army’s lead when looking for a replacement in the future.
The Australians appear to have calculated that replacing the 41 Airbus Taipan helicopters, which Australian defense leaders have said were so unreliable they had to lease commercial helicopters instead, was too urgent of a task to wait for any next-generation birds.
The decision was particularly notable as Australia is in the midst of a Defense Strategic Review assessing the full panoply of force structure and spending decisions, and few acquisition decisions have been announced since it began. The review is expected to be made public in March.
One intriguing part of the decision is that the helos will operate from Oakey, Queensland and Holsworthy, New South Wales. Currently, the Taipans fly from Oakey and Townsville, Queensland, where much of the Australian Army is based. That prompted a former land capability leader to ask in a tweet what the absence of the new helos from Townsville meant.
The locations you describe suggest no helicopters in Townsville? If true this will break the connection between @AustralianArmy Aviation and the combat force. Begs the question why not take the next step & return helicopters to @AusAirForce.
— Fergus McLachlan, AO (@FMcL2020) January 17, 2023
The Black Hawk decision was not unexpected as the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of the deal back in August: “The proposed sale will replace Australia’s current multi-role helicopter fleet with a more reliable and proven system that will allow Australia to maintain the appropriate level of readiness to conduct combined operations. The UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter will improve the Australian Army’s ability to deploy combat power to share (shape, presumably) Australia’s strategic environment, deter actions against its interests, and, when required, respond with credible force.”
This was a bipartisan decision in Canberra, since the previous Liberal Party government had made it in the first place. The former defense minister, Peter Dutton, announced in December 2021 that the army would scrap its fleet of Taipan helicopters.
