Australian MRH-90 Faces Renewed Scrutiny

source aviationweek.com

Sep 19, 2011 By Robert Wall - aerospace daily and defense report

LONDON — The Australian Defense Ministry is about to put the NH Industries MRH-90 multi-role helicopter through another major review.

The results, due in October, could determine whether the program is formally added to the government’s “Projects of Concern” watch list.

In April, following another review, the government laid out a list of remedial actions but held off on putting the helicopter on its “name-and-shame” list. The initial review was ordered because the program suffered delays of 12 months for the navy’s helicopters and 18 months for the army’s aircraft (Aerospace DAILY, May 2).

Jason Clare, minister for defense materiel, says, “A second diagnostic review of the MRH-90 Multi-Role Helicopter Program will begin next week.”

Besides engine and transmission issues, “the poor availability of spares” has been a problem, the defense ministry says.

Deliveries of additional MRH-90s have been halted. Australia has taken possession of 13 of the type and is using them for crew training and testing.

The MRH-90’s travails have also hurt the helicopter competitively. The NFH90 lost out to the MH-60R to meet Australia’s requirement for an anti-submarine warfare helicopter (Aerospace DAILY, June 17).