Australia is decommissioning 45 MRH-90 Taipan helicopters, despite the fact that Ukraine has made a request to receive these helicopters in December 2023. Defense Industry Minister Pat Conroy explained that Ukraine requested the helicopters too late — after the decision to dispose of them had already been made.
According to Conroy, the Government decided last September to permanently phase out the Taipan helicopter fleet after four servicemen were killed during a training exercise in Queensland. The Taipan should be replaced by the American Black Hawk rotorcraft. At the time, there was zero interest in buying Taipan helicopters, Conroy claims.
"There was zero interest in the purchase of rotorcraft. Therefore, the best solution for taxpayers was to dismantle the planes and start selling spare parts. Because the other option would have been to pay Airbus Australia hundreds of millions of dollars to maintain these aircraft in flying condition when there was no prospect of them ever being used by the Australian military again,” Conroy explained.
So, by the time Kyivʼs request came to Australia, the country had already been in the process of disposing of the Taipan helicopters for three months and had stopped any maintenance on them. Kyiv, according to Conroy, was aware of the problems with the safety and operation of helicopters.
Pat Conroy recalled that during the almost two years of Russiaʼs full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Australia provided $910 million in aid, of which $730 million was military aid.
Several Australian lawmakers supported sending Taipan helicopters to Ukraine. Senator Pauline Hanson has called for an end to the disposal of helicopters.
"Taipan helicopters, which are disposed of by Australia, should be sent to Ukraine. This will improve Ukraineʼs ability to evacuate soldiers from battlefields. If our Defense Forces no longer use these helicopters, I see no harm or great expense in supplying a limited number to Ukraine," Hanson said.
She also stressed that decommissioning the Taipan helicopters before Australia receives the US Black Hawk helicopters leaves Australia without the means to respond to military emergencies or natural disasters.
- The MRH-90 Taipan is a multipurpose helicopter 16.13 m long and 5.23 m high. Its maximum speed is 300 km/h.
- Australia has decommissioned 45 MRH-90 Taipan helicopters and decided to dispose of them. Now the Ukrainian community is putting pressure on the government because of this decision of the country.