Release of ASPI Special Report Australian naval combat helicopters-the future
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) today released a report which reviews the current Royal Australian Navy helicopter fleet, including the annual flying hours and costs.
Naval helicopters provide a critical element of the warfighting capability of modern surface ships. The RAN’s current helicopter fleet comes up short in a number of important capabilities. Although the current Seahawk is a capable aircraft, it doesn’t have a dipping sonar for the detection of submarines, an anti-shipping missile or an effective anti-submarine weapon. The situation has been exacerbated by the demise of the billion dollar Super Seasprite helicopter project and the suspension of efforts to provide the Seahawk helicopters with a modern anti-submarine torpedo.
The report finds that Navy is doing a fair job at keeping the existing fleet in the air, although the flying hours don’t come cheaply. The loss of the eleven Seasprites means that the Seahawk fleet will have to continue to shoulder the combat tasks until a replacement can be procured.
The choice for a future helicopter seems to come down to a choice between two types. The new generation ‘Romeo’ variant of the Sikorsky Seahawk is already in service with the US Navy. It has anti-ship and anti-submarine systems and is less expensive than its main rival, the NATO Helicopter Industries NFH (NATO frigate helicopter). The NFH is a larger and structurally more advanced helicopter, and has more capacity in some of the roles it would be called on to perform. It has airframe commonality with helicopters already being bought for Army and Navy that should result in savings over time through economies of scale. But it is also a few years away from full service capability.
The government has to decide whether it needs an immediate decision on the future naval helicopters, and how much risk it wants to bear by choosing between an aircraft already in service and one in the later stages of its development. The best course is probably to wait until hard operator-validated data is available on both of the competitors.
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