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Ukraine’s ambassador in Australia has revealed his country is interested in acquiring ADF’s retiring Eurocopter Tiger fleet.
The news significantly follows the country’s request to acquire the ADF’s now-scrapped MRH-90 Taipan helicopter fleet in late December last year, which the federal government rejected.
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“I mean, on the Taipan (helicopters), it was a decision of the government not to supply them,” said Vasyl Myroshnychenko.
“There might be some other helicopters or some other capabilities which may become available sometime soon. And if those could be provided to Ukraine, we’ll be thankful,” the ambassador said during a recent media conference regarding a shipment of Kord Defence equipment to Ukraine, held on June 19.
“That would be the Tigers. We’d be interested in having that conversation about something that will help.
“In terms of the Taipans (helicopter), we just have to move on. At the end of the day, it’s a decision that has just been made, things have happened, and it’s up to the Australian government to decide what they can do, what they cannot, and we fully respect them.”
Defence is also currently undertaking the scrapping of the retired F/A-18 classic hornet aircraft fleet, which was originally withdrawn with its support equipment from January 2019 to December 2021.
Ambassador Myroshnychenko confirmed there was little interest in those aircraft.
“In terms of the F/A-18 (classic hornets), I mean, there were some discussions. There never was a kind of a clear request from Ukraine,” he said.
“Ukraine figured out, you know, these systems are very complicated, and they’re very expensive to maintain – so a decision was made in Ukraine to focus on F-16 aircraft and to train the pilots for them. That’s kind of the strategy we are following.”
