Don't know how I missed it but this is huge news.
The NH-90's problems have finally caught up with it and the lack of actual performance in the field is affecting sales.
How?
In Australia. The Australians had a wonderful plan to basically neck down to the NH-90 as a common utility type helicopter for their services...the Tactical version for the Army and the Maritime version for its Navy.
But because of the NH-90's below par service so far, the Australians reversed course and are instead procuring MH-60R's instead.
Glorious. Read more at Defense Update.
Not just yet Sol... :)
ReplyDeleteWhat was announced was the DSCA announcement (the Government Notification basically) that Australia has requested the "possible" sale of 24x MH-60R helos. It is not a confirmed order.
Australia is considering the MH-60R v NFH-90, but has not yet made a decision.
Most Australia pundits interested in this sort of thing, consider MH-60R has the inside running given the well reported helicopter problems Australia has had and continues to have, but it is not a sure thing as yet.
MH-60R has problems of it's own. No long ranged air to surface weapon (NFH-90 at least has the Matra Marte Mk II ASM) and no ability to carry a boarding party IF the anti-submarine warfare console and operator is mounted in the cabin.
NFH-90 of course has a massive range of problems, not least of which is development of the aircraft AND mission systems, which is why MH-60R is given the slight nod ahead of NFH-90 by most. OTOH we've already invested $4 Billion in MRH-90 helos and considerable commonality could be had with NFH-90.
It ain't over though and such common-sense considerations are rarely the deciding factor...
Cheers,
AD
Well said AD. I might add that the NFH-90 is also qualified with the MU-90 torpedo already fitted to the ANZAC Frigate and due to be fitted to the Hobart AWD class. The Australian MU-90 project has had bad report, but mainly because of vey poor platform integration at the Australian end. The MU-90 electic propulsion is almost silent when compared with the chain saw level Otto-2 fueled engines re-used on the Mk-54 torpedo fitted to the SH-60R - if you drop one every sub in the same ocean will know about it!
ReplyDeleteAlso even though the NH-90 ENR radar will not have the fancy Automatic Periscope Detection mode being developed for the SH-60R APS-147, is does have a built in air-air mode which would be very useful for a small Navy without organic AEW assets - there are only 6 Wedgetail AEWCs, and Jindalee OTHR detection performance will suffer when bouncing off the ionosphere at the day-night terminator.
Seasprite program f-up may have played a big role. Off the shelf vs developing a new type.
ReplyDelete