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Tiger project hit by delays
By Cpl Andrew Hetherington
Latest news, August 08, 2007 |
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Waiting: Training delays have affected the Tiger project.
Photo by LS Phil Cullinan |
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A DELAY in the training of Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) aircrew is the main reason the Defence Materiel Organisation has stopped payments to Australian Aerospace.
Maj-Gen Anthony Fraser, Head of the Helicopter Systems Division, said payments to Australian Aerospace had ceased because the company had not met the June 1 milestone, which included the initial operational capability for a Tiger squadron.
“The milestone also involved training, numbers of aircraft delivered and other contracted deliverables,” Maj-Gen Fraser said.
“All payments relating to the acquisition contract have ceased until the deliverables under the Initial Operational Capability milestone have been satisfied.”
He said delays in the Franco-German program resulted in “our initial instructors not being trained in France as contracted, and the delays also impacted on development of the ARH simulators needed for training”.
To date nine Army aircrew have received basic qualifications on the Tiger and training is two years behind schedule.
Maj-Gen Fraser said training had continued in the six aircraft already delivered to the Army Aviation Training Centre.
Ten Tigers were expected to be delivered by the end of 2007 with subsequent aircraft accepted as training increased.
“The fleet has flown more than 1500 hours to date for testing and training and selected ARH qualified flying instructors have conducted lead-in skills training on Augusta A109 civil helicopters,” he said.
“Australian Aerospace has also provided a Eurocopter test pilot to assist in training Australian qualified flying instructors and other initiatives continue to be examined.”
A seventh Tiger, which will be fully instrumented, will soon be delivered to the Aircraft Research and Development Unit to be used for ongoing testing and evaluation to develop the ARH operational capability.
Maj-Gen Fraser said a positive aspect of the project was the integration of Hellfire missiles to give the Army a world-class capability.
“Australia included France in the most recent missile firing and shared data on the excellent success of Eurocopter and Australian Aerospace integration of the US Hellfire into Australian ARH. As a result France recently selected the Hellfire missile for their version of the Tiger,” he said.
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