Will the MRH-90 Taipan fleet end up in Ukraine? Kiev wants helicopters Australia is scrapping
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Pressure groups and native Ukrainians living in Australia are pushing for the government to hand over to Ukraine the fleet of 45 decommissioned and scrapped MRH-90 Taipan helicopters.
After years of struggling with the multitude of logistical, parts quality and software problems that affected the availability and flight safety of its fleet of MRH-90 Taipan helicopters, Australia decided to replace them with 40 U.S.-origin UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters.
The European-designed helicopters were due to be withdrawn from service in December 2024, but after a fatal accident occurred in September 2023, the Australian Department of Defense decided not to wait any longer, to ground the entire Taipan fleet and prepare them for scrapping.
See also: Netherlands to modernize its fleet of naval NH90 helicopters
One man’s «trash» is another man’s treasure.
But according to ABC News Australia, the troubled MRH-90 Taipan helicopters are desired by Ukraine, which in December 2023 reportedly placed a formal order for them, despite their historic safety and operability issues.
«Our risk assessment is different. We are at war,» said Anton Bogdanovych, one of the organizers of the rally of Ukrainian supporters in Sydney on Sunday, January 14.
Bogdanovych stated that «the Australian government, for some reason, wants all of us, the taxpayers, to pay about $2 billion to dismantle them, bury them on Australian soil, pollute the environment instead of helping a friend in need.»
The Ukrainian ambassador to Australia, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, is still hopeful that the government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will change its mind and cede these aircraft, as they have not yet received a response to the request.
See also: Ukraine’s Ground Forces Demand More Aircraft, Including A-10s, for War Effort
The Taipan disassembly process has already begun. Following a proposal by NH Industries ( the business consortium that manufactures the model), key spare parts are first removed to create a stock that can be used by the other NH90 operators to lower costs and improve the availability of their fleets.
The first North American UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters, which will replace the MRH-90 helicopter fleet, have already begun arriving in Australia under an accelerated delivery program.
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