Super Puma Bids For RAAF Order

Aerospatiale Super Puma

The Australian Department of Defence has announced its requirement for an Iroquois and Wessex helicopter replacement programme. Responding to what will ultimately be a billion-dollar order are Aerospatiale with their Super Puma, Sikorsky with the export version of the UH-60 Blackhawk, Westland with the military development of the W30 and Boeing/Bell with the revolutionary JVX Tilt Rotor. In a series of four articles we examine what these individual aircraft have to offer the Australian Defence Forces in the nineteen nineties and the years beyond.

Aerospatiale’s AS332 Super Puma, which it has proposed for the RAAF Huey utility helicopter replacement programme, is an impressively capable and versatile machine with applications far beyond pure military roles.

It matches and in some areas considerably exceeds the RAAF requirement, but is about 10-15 per cent cheaper than its closest competitor, the Sikorsky Blackhawk – around which the RAAF specification appears to be written.

The Super Puma was deliberately designed for maximum versatility in both civil and military roles and has already seen service as a utility and tactical transport, offshore oil support helo, VIP, commuter and charter helicopter.

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