Leonardo announced on 1 March that the Australian Army would lease two additional AW139 helicopters, adding to three previously leased in the same fashion from Toll Helicopters. They come with a searchlight, hoist, cargo hook and provision for electro-optic/infrared sensors.
The extra pair of AW139s will come from Leonardo’s final assembly line in Italy, and will be delivered in the second half of 2023. This will bring to twelve the number of AW139s that Toll is operating in Australia, of which five are dedicated to the Australian Army.
One of the AW139s will be used as a crash response helicopter service for the 1st Aviation Regiment in Darwin, while the other will join the Army Commercial Helicopter programme supporting the 5th Aviation Regiment in Townsville.
The army received its first leased AW139 on 30 April 2021, and two more in May and October the same year. The Department of Defence stated that Helicorp, which is trading as Toll Helicopters, has ‘met all milestones, with training, aircraft serviceability and flying hour requirements exceeding expectations’.
Helicorp is providing the trio of white-painted AW139s for an initial two-year period. Indeed, the original contract ends on 30 June this year, but options for two 12-month extensions exist.
Under this programme, also known as Plan Corella, army personnel of the 5th Aviation Regiment are operating the AW139s from Hamel Lines at RAAF Base Townsville. The helicopters were needed to augment training, for transport (e.g. supporting exercises), emergency relief and non-combat general aviation support.
Defence said, ‘The helicopters have similar performance to the MRH90 and will be used to support aircrew development and currency requirements when combat aircraft are not available.’
Indeed, the need for the supplemental AW139s was made manifest by lower-than-desirable availability rates for the MRH90 Taipan helicopter fleet. Since that time, the Australian government has disclosed that the MRH90 will be discarded in favour of the UH-60M Black Hawk.
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