Australia has worked out a disposal strategy for its NH Industries (NHI) MRH90 Taipan helicopters that does not include transferring them to other operators of the twin-engined type.
FlightGlobal understands that Canberra contacted other NH90 users to gauge interest in the rotorcraft, which were were permanently retired in September 2023, but received no positive replies.
The helicopters had been destined for retirement in December 2024, but this was brought forward following the fatal crash of an MRH90 – the local designation for the NH90 – last July, in which all four crew were killed. An investigation into the crash is ongoing.
But the crash followed years of sustainment challenges with the Taipans, despite their relatively young age; Cirium fleets data indicates that Australia has 45 MRH90s in storage, with an average age of just 10.7 years.
Although overseas users were not interested in the fleet, there is significant demand for spare parts, which are being harvested from the airframes. Airframe sections that have no value as spares will be disposed of.
NHI sees the salvaged components as a key pillar of its effort to improve availability of the global NH90 fleet through the introduction of a parts-exchange programme.
Speaking in December, NHI president Axel Aloccio said negotiations with Canberra for the recovered compenents and its spare parts inventory were under way,
”We will feed our NHI inventory with secondhand parts that we are currently buying back from Australia. The buyback process is ongoing and the parts will come into our inventory early next year,” he said.
FlightGlobal also understands that Ukraine issued a formal request for the helicopters, but that Canberra received this only after the break-up of the MRH90s had commenced.
The fate of the helicopters has created a furore in Australia, fuelled by a recent episode of the Asia Pacific Defense Reporter podcast, in which host Kym Bergmann said that the helicopters will be buried instead of being sent to Ukraine.
Bergmann argues that in Ukrainian service the helicopters could be readily supported from Europe – NHI is a three-way consortium involving Airbus Helicopters, Leonardo Helicopters, and Fokker/GKN.
However, given the sustainment challenges expereinced by all NH90 operators, and the platform’s relatively high cost per flight hour, not to mention training requirements, there is a strong argument against their utility for Kiev.
Nonetheless, the issue continues to make waves: on 14 January the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that Ukraine supporters in Australia had mounted a protest rally against Canberra’s MRH90 decisions.
Canberra is in process of replacing its MRH90s with 40 Sikorsky UH-60Ms obtained through the US government’s Foreign Military Sales process.
