Asia-Pacific

Australian defense to buy new helicopters

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-04-28 17:04

CANBERRA - Australia's defense has officially launched the contest to supply Australia's new navy helicopters on Wednesday.

Defense Minister John Faulkner said the new helicopter would be either the Sikorsky-Lockheed Martin MH-60R (Romeo) sourced through the United States Navy, or The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Helicopter Industries NH90 NFH sourced through Australian Aerospace.

Senator Faulkner said in a statement the Defense Material Organization had released the project documents to the United States Navy and Australian Aerospace.

The government planned to make a decision next year and the new helicopters should enter service in 2014.

They will fill a role now performed by aging Seahawk helicopters. The government had planned to buy Seasprites to replace them before that project was canceled.

Romeo is a modernized version of the familiar Seahawk and is in US. Navy service. NFH-90 is a navy version of the MRH-90 of which the Australian army has been buying 40.

The defense white paper, released last year, has nominated a fleet of 24 at a cost about 1.5 billion dollars.