Australian Aerospace Delivers Final Tiger To Defence

A pro­gram to pro­vide the Aus­tralian Defence Force (ADF) with an unri­valled armed recon­nais­sance heli­copter capa­bil­i­ty achieved a major mile­stone today with the deliv­ery of the last pro­duc­tion Tiger Helicopter. 

From left to right: Dr Jens Goen­ne­mann, CEO Aus­tralian Aero­space; Rear Admi­ral Mark Camp­bell, Head Heli­copter Sys­tems Divi­sion; Major Gen­er­al Rick Burr, Com­man­der First Divi­sion; Brigadier Neil Tur­ton, Direc­tor Gen­er­al Avi­a­tion; Brigadier Greg Lawler CSC, Com­man­der 16th Avi­a­tion Brigade; Brigadier Andrew Math­ew­son, Direc­tor Gen­er­al Army Avi­a­tion Sys­tems; Dr Mar­tin Wern­er, Vice Pres­i­dent Gov­ern­men­tal Heli­copters Aus­tralian Aero­space. Ref. 062, © Copy­right Aus­tralian Aero­space Source: EADS Click to enlarge

A two-crew heli­copter, many of which are now enter­ing into ser­vice with armed forces around the world includ­ing oper­a­tional use by French Army in Afghanistan Tiger ARH022 was accept­ed by Defence at local defence man­u­fac­tur­er Aus­tralian Aerospace’s Final Assem­bly plant on Bris­bane Airport.

The for­mal hand-over cer­e­mo­ny was attend­ed by rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Com­mon­wealth, avi­a­tion and aero­space indus­try exec­u­tives, senior offi­cers of the Aus­tralian Defence Force, and senior man­age­ment of Aus­tralian Aero­space Lim­it­ed and its par­ent; Eurocopter.

Acquired under Project Air 87, the Tiger replaces Defence’s exist­ing rotary-wing force com­pris­ing Bell 206B‑1 (Kiowa) recon­nais­sance and UH1‑H (Iro­quois) gun­ship heli­copters. The Tigers have been deployed with the Army’s 1st Avi­a­tion Reg­i­ment in Dar­win, the Army Avi­a­tion Train­ing Cen­tre at Oakey in Queens­land and at RAAF Edin­burgh, in South Australia.

Com­ment­ing at the final deliv­ery, Dr Jens Goen­ne­mann Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer Aus­tralian Aero­space, said: “This is a great day for Army Avi­a­tion, the Aus­tralian Defence Force and for Aus­tralian Aero­space, mark­ing anoth­er impor­tant mile­stone in the ARH program.

“The Tiger ARH has been a com­plex and demand­ing pro­gram and one not with­out its fair share of chal­lenges,’ Dr. Goen­ne­mann said. ‘But exten­sive col­lab­o­ra­tion and a coop­er­a­tive approach by Aus­tralian Aero­space, our indus­try part­ners and the var­i­ous ADF branch­es involved has been a sig­nif­i­cant con­trib­u­tor to where we proud­ly stand today.”

Dr. Goen­ne­mann said deliv­ery of ARH022 did not sig­ni­fy an end to Aus­tralian Aerospace’s Tiger rela­tion­ship with the ADF. “Aus­tralian Aero­space will con­tin­ue to work with Army to sup­port, main­tain and bring this impor­tant new plat­form to matu­ri­ty with­in the ADF.”

Under Project AIR 87, as well as assem­bly of the Tigers and deliv­ery of ground crew train­ing sys­tems, Aus­tralian Aero­space is also respon­si­ble for the over­all pro­gram man­age­ment and Through-Life-Sup­port (TLS) of the heli­copters through­out their ser­vice life.

The Tiger ARH is the world’s most advanced armed recon­nais­sance heli­copter, com­pris­ing a stream­lined design incor­po­rat­ing cut­ting-edge tech­nolo­gies. The large­ly com­pos­ite air­frame makes the Tiger lighter, faster and more agile than its com­peti­tors and reduces the helicopter’s radar cross-section.

Equipped to car­ry a 30mm tur­ret­ed-can­non in the nose, 70mm rock­ets and Hell­fire air-to-ground mis­siles, the Tiger can detect and engage tar­gets at long dis­tances. The French Defence Force has oper­at­ed its Tigers in Afghanistan since 2009 and in Libya in 2011 with great success.

The strong rela­tion­ship between the ADF and Aus­tralian Aero­space holds true across Aus­tralian Aerospace’s range of Defence pro­grams. The com­pa­ny sup­ports the C‑130J Her­cules Trans­ports, the AP-3C Ori­on recon­nais­sance air­craft and the MRH90 mul­ti-role heli­copter. The MRH90 is present­ly being assem­bled in-coun­try and deliv­ered to Defence. The two part­ners recent­ly signed a deed agree­ment to pave the way for the suc­cess­ful intro­duc­tion of the capa­bil­i­ty into service.

About Aus­tralian Aerospace:

With more than 1100 staff in Aus­tralia and New Zealand, Aus­tralian Aero­space has access to the finan­cial strength and exper­tise of Euro­copter and the EADS Group. At its pro­duc­tion facil­i­ty on Bris­bane Air­port, Aus­tralian Aero­space is cur­rent­ly assem­bling and deliv­er­ing 22 Tiger ARH armed recon­nais­sance heli­copters for the Aus­tralian Army and 46 MRH90 mul­ti-role heli­copters for the Army and Navy. In addi­tion to its heli­copter capa­bil­i­ties, Aus­tralian Aero­space sup­ports the Roy­al Aus­tralian Air Force’s (RAAF) AP-3C Ori­on recon­nais­sance air­craft and C‑130J Her­cules trans­ports. The com­pa­ny is also involved in sup­port­ing the RAAF’s new Air­bus A330-based Mul­ti-Role Tanker-Trans­port (MRTT) air­craft and F/A18 (Clas­sic) Hor­net fighters.

Fur­ther Infor­ma­tion:
Nathan PICK
Aus­tralian Aerospace

Tel.:(07) 3637 3906 / 0438 676 909