Australia has decided to dismantle and dispose of decommissioned Taipan helicopters instead of sending them to Ukraine.
This information is reported by ABC.
In September of last year, MRH-90 helicopters of the Australian army were retired 14 months earlier than the planned term, after four servicemen crashed during training in Queensland two months earlier.
Initially, they were planned to be retired in 2037, but these European-designed helicopters had problems leading to the grounding of the entire fleet for many years.
Ukraine officially requested the supply of MRH-90 on December 19, 2023, despite the documented safety and operational issues with the aircraft.
The publication notes that the Australian government intends to decommission 45 helicopters.
The Ambassador of Ukraine to Australia, Vasyl Miroshnychenko, said that he "hopes there is still a chance (for the transfer of helicopters)... because we have not received any response yet."
On the secondary market, each helicopter costs about $20 million.
NH90 Taipan is a twin-engine multi-role medium-sized military helicopter. The NH90 is the first serial helicopter fully equipped with fly-by-wire flight control. There are two main variants: the Tactical Transport Helicopter (TTH) for use in the army and the NATO Frigate Helicopter (NFH) for military-naval frigates.
