Australia — Chinook contract signed

Min­is­ter for Defence Materiel Jason Clare today announced that Defence had signed a con­tract with BAE Sys­tems to main­tain the Army’s fleet of Chi­nook Heli­copters.
The $20.9 mil­lion con­tract means that BAE will main­tain and sup­port the Chi­nooks over the next six years.

“Chi­nooks were an impor­tant part of the Defence Force’s response to the Queens­land floods,” Mr Clare said. 

“They trans­port­ed the Red Cross, the Sal­va­tion Army and emer­gency ser­vice work­ers as well as food and shel­ters into places like Condamine. 

“They have also been hard at work sup­port­ing our troops in Afghanistan in recent times pro­vid­ing logis­ti­cal sup­port and mov­ing com­bat units into battle. 

“None of this hap­pens if they aren’t well-maintained.” 

Mr Clare said the Chi­nook fleet was based in Townsville and BAE Sys­tems Aus­tralia is work­ing there with Army Aviation. 

“BAE Sys­tems Australia’s bid rep­re­sent­ed the best val­ue for mon­ey,” Mr Clare said. BAE Sys­tems have been main­tain­ing the Chi­nook fleet since 1995. 

There are cur­rent­ly six heli­copters in the Chi­nook fleet oper­at­ed by the 5th Avi­a­tion Reg­i­ment in Townsville. 

Since 1995 Chi­nook heli­copters have been the Aus­tralian Defence Force’s deploy­able medi­um-lift heli­copter capability. 

Media con­tact: Kore­na Flana­gan – 02 6277 7620 

Press release
Min­is­te­r­i­al Sup­port and Pub­lic Affairs,
Depart­ment of Defence,
Can­ber­ra, Australia 

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