Protesters from the Ukrainian community are stepping up pressure on the Albanese government over its decision to dismantle and bury Australia’s retired fleet of Taipan helicopters instead of sending them to the war-torn nation.
Key points:
- Australia retired its fleet last year, earlier than expected, after a fatal crash
- Ukraine requested the aircraft in December despite its well-documented safety concerns
- Australia has so far provided the war-torn country with over 100 Bushmasters
In September last year, the Australian Army’s MRH-90 helicopters were retired 14-months earlier than scheduled, after a crash in Queensland killed four defence personnel during a training exercise two months earlier.
They were initially meant to be withdrawn in 2037, but the troubled European-designed aircraft has had a history of problems, leading to fleet-wide groundings over the years.
Ukraine made an official request for the MRH-90’s on December 19, 2023, despite the aircraft’s well-documented safety and operational concerns.
“Our assessment of risk is different. We’re at war,” Anton Bogdanovych, who helped organise a rally of Ukrainian supporters in Sydney on Sunday.
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Mr Bogdanovych said “the Australian government for some reason wants us all, the taxpayers, to pay close to $2 billion to dismantle them, to bury it in Australian soil, to pollute the environment instead of helping a friend in need.”
The co-chair of the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations, Kateryna Argyrou, said, “the Russian federation has complete air superiority over Ukraine and those 45 Taipan helicopters could end up on the Ukrainian front line, it would go a very long way to help Ukrainians fight for freedom and democracy.”
“The Australian government unfortunately hasn’t communicated why those helicopters have been decommissioned and why they are being buried into the ground,” she added.
“Hopefully there’s time to reverse that decision.”
Ukrainian Ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko said he’s “hoping that there’s still a possibility … because we didn’t get any reply yet.”
But the disassembly process has already begun, following a disposal process where no countries or other parties showed interest in the whole aircraft.
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A Defence spokesperson told the ABC, the department “will dispose of the remaining airframes and systems in an environmentally friendly and cost-effective manner.”
“Defence is working with Airbus Australia Pacific and NATO Helicopter Industries to harvest key spares from the MRH-90 fleet for the use of other NH90 operators,” they added.
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The outgoing Taipans are being replaced by 40 UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters, but only a handful of the US-made aircraft have so far arrived in Australia.
Last year, the ABC revealed that investigators had ruled out any link between last July’s fatal crash in the Whitsundays and an earlier incident involving another Taipan that injured several defence personnel on the NSW South Coast.
According to the government, Australia remains one of the “largest non-NATO contributors to the resistance effort in Ukraine.”
Last week, Assistant Defence Minister Matt Thistlethwaite farewelled 90 troops on their way to the UK to help train Ukrainian soldiers, bringing the total to 370 ADF soldiers in five rotations.
Speaking at the event, the minister declared, “already we’ve devoted $910 million worth of expenditure, about $730 million of that is on military equipment.”
Since the beginning of the conflict, Australia has provided Ukraine with a 120 Bushmasters, wedge-tail aircraft and artillery vehicles, among other military supplies.