- Messages
- 9,315
- Reactions
- Nation of residence
-
- Nation of origin
-
Resurgent Tiger fights for survival in Australian ARH competition
Source: Commonwealth of Australia Operating in littoral environments is essential for Australia's armed reconnaissance helicopter (ARH) It may have taken years for the Airbus Helicopters Tiger to finally hit its stride in Australia, but the capability improvement now achieved may have come too...
www.flightglobal.com
It may have taken years for the Airbus Helicopters Tiger to finally hit its stride in Australia, but the capability improvement now achieved may have come too late to save the attack helicopter from replacement by a US-built product.
The airframer cannot say it was not warned of its customer’s growing frustration with the platform, nor of an ambition to replace it. In February 2016, Canberra’s defence white paper explicitly stated that the Australian Army’s 22 Tigers were to be supplanted by a mix of manned and unmanned assets.
“The Tiger has had a troubled history – essential upgrades are programmed to maintain the capability’s effectiveness. Defence will invest in a future armed reconnaissance capability to replace the Tiger, which could include manned or unmanned systems or a combination of both, to be introduced from the mid-2020s,” the white paper said.
(more at link)
