Australian Army blocks Taipan helicopters for Ukraine to cover up their own failures

The truth is finally starting to come out.  It took only 90 seconds and two questions from Senator David Fawcett to Foreign Minister Penny Wong to confirm what many have long suspected – the only thing between desperately needed Taipan helicopters being donated to Ukraine is a veto by the Army, which the government is too weak to overrule. The following exchange took place on Wednesday 7 February: Sen Fawcett: The reality is that Ukraine first expressed an interest in using the Taipans for casualty evacuation during a meeting I held with them during a NATO conference in October last year – and I made sure that your government was advised of that interest even before I left Copenhagen and returned to Australia. Minister – why didn’t the Albanese government even bother to pick up the phone to consult the Ukrainians before deciding on a plan to dig a hole and bury the helicopters? Sen Wong: As I understand it, in relation to these matters the Government has acted on advice from Defence.  The advice I have is that the advice from Defence is that these were not the right platform for Ukraine and the Government and Defence made decisions on that basis. Sen Fawcett: Minister, I think the Ukrainians are well placed to decide what platforms will keep their soldiers alive (shouts of Hear! Hear!). Now that the Government has a formal request from Ukraine – and it has been established that a number of helicopters remain airworthy in Townsville – will the Albanese government reverse its decision and donate the aircraft, even in their current state, to allow Ukraine to work with its NATO partners that continue to safely operate the same type of helicopter to establish an Aeromedical capability to save the lives of their people? Sen Wong: In relation to this issue, I will continue to take the advice from Defence about the best way forward for this platform, but also I will make the broader point that the government continues to keep under review the nature and breadth of the assistance to Ukraine. The arrogance of the Australian Army in deciding what is, and what is not, suitable for Ukraine is a level beyond breathtaking. The last time the Army was engaged in a conflict of the scale and savagery of the invasion of Ukraine would have been during the Siege of Tobruk in 1941 – and even that was a minor skirmish compared with the ongoing assaults being launched daily by Russian forces.  Taking into account the static nature of much of the current conflict and the use of massed artillery, and the daily casualty rate, one would need to go back to Passchendaele on the Western Front in late 1917 for a closer analogy. The armed forces of Ukraine have collected more combat experience in the last two years than the ADF has in the previous six decades.  When they say that they can make good use of Taipans it is ridiculous that the Australian Army from the comfort of the offices of Canberra can overrule their request. Ukraine is well aware that the Taipan/NH90 family have an excellent safety record – and the sensor mix is unmatched in its class. The motivation is obvious: senior officers in the Army would be highly embarrassed if another nation was able to safely and effectively operate Taipans when they have so mismanaged the program.  While prime contractor Airbus Helicopters is not completely without blame, the poor availability of Taipans is explained largely by: Not enough trained and qualified aircrew; Not enough spare parts ordered; Unintegrated logistic data bases such as CAMM2; A deliberate unwillingness to learn from successful operators, such as New Zealand; Too many geographically diverse centres of support; A support contract that gave Defence a perverse financial incentive to ground the fleet; Spurious or unnecessary groundings, caused by a failure to implement updates recommended by the manufacturer This list needs to be combined with an unhealthy, illogical and uncontested obsession on the part of a few senior Army officers to return the good old days of Black Hawk helicopters. As has been widely reported, the cost to the Australian taxpayer of returning between 12 and 20 helicopters to flying condition will be minimal because there are plenty of volunteers to do the work for free: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-07/last-ditch-offer-to-divert-taipan-helicopters-help-ukraine/103434286 If even that is unacceptable, then the Government should transport helicopters and parts to Europe and let Ukraine’s NATO allies France and Germany – major operators of the Taipan / NH90 family – do the work over there. At about the same time as Senator Fawcett’s questions, Defence Minister Richard Marles had an extraordinarily softball interview on the ABC’s “Afternoon Briefing” program during which he made a number of inconsistent or misleading claims: He said he had no idea how much the Taipan parts would be sold for. How then can he claim that this strategy represents the best value for money for taxpayers; Claimed that the dismantling had commenced before the request from Ukraine had been received. This is close to a lie – Senator Fawcett advised the government of Ukraine’s interest around October 10; disassembly started around October 19; He said on several occasions that Army faces a major capability gap with the early retirement of Taipans and was unable to say when, or how many, Black Hawks will be fully operational, despite the expedited delivery of 12 of them. Even if the first 12 are operational by the end of 2024 that does not replace 45 Taipans. There is no logical explanation for why this has been allowed to happen; Repeated that Australia – not Ukraine – is better placed to decide what is “useful and practical” for the armed forces of Ukraine. Clearly, the Australian Army has convinced the Government to fully back their strategy of destroying Taipans simply to stop anyone else from using them.  In their minds, the fate of Ukraine is far less important than covering up for their own incompetence and mismanagement. In some remarks at the end of Question Time, Senator Fawcett commented that Army – and the Government – are more interested in saving face than in saving the lives of Ukrainian soldiers. He concluded: “That is not the Australia that I know. That is not the Australia that has put its shoulder to the wheel many times to support like-minded nations – particularly here, where we are seeing such a great loss of life and injury to their population as they fight against totalitarian regimes in order to protect the democracy that we share and want to preserve.” For Editorial Inquiries Contact: Editor Kym Bergmann at [email protected] For Advertising Inquiries Contact: Director of Sales Graham Joss at [email protected]