How the Aussies may approach buying new naval helicopters

From Aviation Week & Space Technology, May 18 (text subscriber only, p. 35):

Australia Likely to Act on Naval Nelicopter Requirement This Year
Australia will buy at least 24 naval helicopters
Printed headline: Choose Your Partner

The Royal Australian Navy is likely to move this year to replace its combat helicopter force, and must decide whether it wants commonality with the Australian Army or the U.S. Navy.

Eurocopter’s NH90 series would help to simplify the Australian military’s fleet, but Sikorsky’s MH-60R is already in production for the U.S. Navy.Credit: EUROCOPTER

On the one hand, the country has a rare and attractive opportunity to rationalize most of its military helicopter force around a single basic type, Eurocopter’s NH90, which it has already ordered for the army.

But the navy, keen for an early entry into service and embarrassed by repeated equipment program failures, is tempted to reach for an off-the-shelf aircraft already proven in U.S. service, the Sikorsky MH-60R.

Australia will buy at least 24 naval helicopters “as a matter of urgency,” the government says in its defense white paper issued on May 2 (AW&ST May 11, p. 34). The aircraft would replace 16 Sikorsky S-70B Seahawks, similar to the U.S. Navy’s old SH-60Bs, and 11 Kaman SH-2G(A) Super Seasprites that were canceled before ever entering Australian service.

Timing is a key issue. If the government’s declaration of “urgency” means that the winner must be chosen immediately for the earliest possible in-service date, then Sikorsky has the order in the bag. The MH-60R, the latest standard of Sikorsky’s long-running H-60 line, can be delivered in the shortest timeframe.

“We are in full-rate production with the MH-60R,” says Leonard Wengler, vice president for naval products at Sikorsky. “Close to 30 aircraft will be delivered this year and in 2011 we can begin delivering internationally.”

The NH90’s naval variant, the NFH, is running about four years behind the U.S. helicopter, with first deliveries scheduled for the end of this year to the Dutch navy.

The suggestion of urgency may not mean an immediate order, however. The choice for a Seahawk replacement was previously due in 2015-18, with service entry in 2017-19. Compared with that relaxed schedule, a formal competition launch this year followed by a decision in 2010 or 2011 would be quick.

“It is hard to believe, after the Seasprite experience, that this will be a rushed decision,” says Jens Goennemann, chief executive of local Eurocopter subsidiary Australian Aviation. “It will be a very careful decision as it will impact naval aviation capabilities for decades to come. I think the evaluation will continue but I don’t see a decision this year.”

The ugly Seasprite experience may still help Sikorsky, because the MH-60R, as the most mature contender, should present the least risk. Amid the usual pile of acquisition foul-ups, the Australian armed forces have had very smooth results in the past few years when they have simply ordered equipment already in service for the U.S. forces...

Meanwhile, we have the sorry story of our acquisition of the CH-148 Sikorsky Cyclone as our new naval helicopter--see here, here, here and the end of this post. Curious, is it not, that neither the Aussies, nor anyone else, seems to be considering the Sikorsky chopper we have bought, a military version of a civilian aircraft.