The Australian Defence White Paper in 2016 provided a recommendation that the Australian Army’s Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) Tiger fleet have limited sustainment while the Australian Defence Force (ADF) launched a Request for Information (RFI) that would seek a potential replacement. This was called LAND 4503.
This RFI is due to close on 22 July 2020 with three contenders having been identified. The task before the Helicopter Systems Division (HSD) of Defence’s Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group (CASG) is to recommend one of three options:
1. Keep the Tiger fleet with upgrades suggested by Airbus.
2. Acquire a new attack helicopter fleet from Bell, the AH-1Z Viper
3. Acquire a new attack helicopter fleet from Boeing, the Apache AH-64E.
In late 2004, the Australian Army received the first of 22 Tigers. However, figures released by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) revealed that Tiger was late in meeting its original final operating capability (FOC) deadline by nearly seven years, from 2009 to April 2016.
The current RFI is seeking 29 attack helicopters and, following the painful experience of bringing Tiger into full service, has set the initial operational capability (IOC) for the first squadron of 12 aircraft in 2026, followed by a full operational capability (FOC) in 2028.
While there is no room to provide a full discussion of the capabilities of the three options, Airbus was keen to mount a defence of why its Tiger should be retained.
Keeping the Tiger
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