Australia’s $7 billion move to strengthen helicopter fleet

Peter Dutton has confirmed Australia’s $7 billion defence acquisition, adding that regional “instability” was a key motivator behind the move.

Defence Minister Peter Dutton has confirmed Australia will acquire 40 new US-imported Black Hawks and 12 Seahawk helicopters, a decade before the current Airbus MRH-90 Taipan models were scheduled to be retired.

The European-produced Taipan models have repeatedly reported faults, including nine instances where it wasn’t able to fly. Despite months-long attempts to resolve the issues with Airbus, the faults were unable to be fixed.

A UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter being used by Australian soldiers in Northern Kandahar, Afghanistan. Picture: Department of Defence.

Confirming the news on Friday morning, Mr Dutton hinted that regional “instability” was a motivator behind the government’s reported $7 billion move.

“Taipan has been a project of concern for the last decade, it’s had nine instances where it’s been unsuitable to fly,” Mr Dutton said.

“I’m just not going to put our people in that position — we want the best equipment for them, and the Black Hawk clearly is going to provide that outcome.

“Getting up to 40 of them will, I think, send a very clear message to our partners and to our adversaries that the Australian Defence Force is serious about defending Australia and making sure that we can make a significant contribution when we’re called on.”

Mr Dutton also hoped the trade would continue to strengthen relations between Australia and the US.

“For the interoperability with the US and Australia which is increasingly important for us given the instability in our region, the Black Hawk made perfect sense,” he said.

While no country was named, Mr Dutton’s recent comments on Australia’s relationship with China has earnt him a lashing from China’s Foreign Affairs Zhao Lijian.

Mr Zhao said Mr Dutton was “driven by selfish political games” and advised him to stop his “Cold War mentality” when it came to relations between Australia and China.

“As a senior official of the Australian government, (Mr Dutton) is obsessed with the Cold War mentality and ideological prejudices,” Mr Zhao said.

“He has repeatedly made provocations, sensational and astonishing statements on China-related issues.”

Mr Dutton later hit back at these claims, labelling them “propaganda of the Communist Party”.

“There’s no other ambassador at the moment running around issuing threats to government ministers or criticising Australian government policy,” he said during an appearance on Sky News.

Mr Dutton hopes Australia’s new helicopter fleet will show the “Australian Defence Force is serious about defending Australia,” he said on Friday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin. Ollman.

Prior to news that the ADF would be replacing the Taipan fleet, the Australian Army reported spending over $37 million in hiring civilian helicopters in Townsville due to operating faults.

In June of this year, the entire fleet of MRH-90 Taipans was also grounded as a safety precaution after an issue arose concerning the “application of the helicopter’s maintenance policy in the helicopter’s IT support system,” as reported by Australian Defence.

While they’ve been used by the Australian Army since 2007, a similar incident happened in 2019. A precautionary landing was needed after a tail rotor vibration was detected, forcing the entire fleet to be grounded.

A MRH-90 Taipan Multi-Role Helicopter mid-flight. Picture: Supplied.

This round of defence spending follows the government’s scrapping of the $90 billion Future Submarines program for a new ‘AUKUS’ deal with US and Britain.

The spectacular row came to a head when French President Emmanuel Macron called Mr Morrison a liar while speaking to reporters at the G20 summit in Rome.

“I have a lot of respect and a lot of friendship for (Australian) people,” he said.

“I just say when we have respect, you have to be true and you have to behave in line and consistently with this value.”