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This story about the Australian Army’s Tiger helicopter first appeared in the June 2019 edition of Australian Aviation.
HMAS Canberra. (Defence)
After protracted development and a troubled service entry, the Australian Army’s Airbus EC 665 Tiger Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) has only recently started hitting its straps and providing its promised capability – one which has been nearly two decades in the making.
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Mick C
says:It’s not a great time for Australia to have to replace the Tiger with both Apache E and Viper fast approaching the end of their production runs unless further orders are received and their next Gen successors not available till the early 30s at best.
The Compound Apache sounds interesting but like the F-15X, unless the US DOD puts significant effort into its development and that comes at the expense of next Gen platforms it’s not going to happen.
Steve
says:Even the US Army is not happy with the Apache for armed reconnaissance (ARH) role and is looking to FARA to replace it.
Reece
says:Wait for FARA, it is developing fast, will allow better operability with the US and will be significantly faster and more capable. In the mean time moderate upgrades worthwhile to keep it going until FARA is available and bedded down a bit more.
TwinTiger
says:To cover the gap post 2025, the ADF could use the LAND 2097/4 selection and increase the number to 24-30 units as additional attack variants such as the A/MH-6M Little Bird (Killer Egg). The first major advantage of this attack helicopter is that it not only can be transported by the C-17A, but they also can be slotted into a C-130J-30. The second advantage is that the base helicopter is the AH-6, which has already been adapted and flown as an unmanned unit. Both these attributes talk to the RPDE report recommendations. This would maximise flexibility and operability of the platform and the ADF during the 2020s.
This would give some breathing space to consider the development of FARA and its suitability.
Zorro
says:It’s no good (the little bird) in anything other than Australian domestic counter terrorism roles. It’s poor at high altitude/ high temperature/ high humidity areas such as our near neighbours, it has a poor range for off-shore or land-to-ship operations, cannot do SE Asian special recovery operations in the heat/ height/ humidity with the payload required…
It looks good in the movies – and it’s good at sea level tasks. Not much else – we cannot afford to go down a single helo for a single job route in the ADF.
145M has similarities with the ADF training platform at least….
Phil
says:Just for future reference. 1 Avn Regt, as well 5 & 6 Avn Regts are part of the 16th (Avn) Brigade
John
says:So we purchased a weapon system that roughly 20 years later is just proving to be useful after we’ve been at war in two countries! Does anyone think that there may be something wrong with this situation? Anyone? I’m just a dumb tax paying civilian.
Paul Spackman
says:I am with you John.Why do we buy aircraft that are not suitable for our purposes and then spend millions of dollars and many years adapting them to our conditions.Sea sprite and Tiger are typical examples.The people who sign off on them are long retired when we get them.Pilots and maintaince personell should have more say in purchases.
Mick C
says:John
A lot of people think that there is something wrong with this situation, unfortunately due to some issues, the Army has had a lot of trouble with the Tiger and even when FOC was announced it was with 9 Caveats.
Matt
says:Viper seems the most suited to ADF it has same GE engines as SeHawks it’s suited to ops off the LHDs and is used by the Marines now and still being built. Ow?
josh
says:buying crap that is 20years out of date, and getting rid of something that is an icon to our military, if you want to get rid of the tiger, why not make an attack helicopter in Australia, not buy over sea`s rubbish, we got what it takes to be self sufficient and become the top 3 ranking in the military ranking chart. we supply 30% of the worlds uranium, we got one of the world biggest ore deposit of coal, oil ect, and here we are getting our jobs sold to over sea`s country and business`s, very ironic i think