The Australian Special Forces want to procure the Bell-429 light multi-role helicopter from Bell-Textron. This may also be relevant for Austria, as the model is also considered a possible successor candidate for the Austrian Armed Forces’ Alouette III.
Austria is known to be on the lookout for new multi-role helicopters. As the spare parts stock of the current 19 Alouette III aircraft will only last until 2023, a replacement procurement was considered for the first time under Defense Minister Gerald Klug (2013 to 2016). According to current information from the provision section, the procurement explicitly mentioned in the government program is likely to continue, and there are several candidates for the successor. Contrary to interim considerations and the specifications adapted in 2017, larger designs such as the AW169MA from Leonardo or the Airbus H145M appear to be playing a role alongside smaller models. However, models such as the AW109 Trekker or the Bell-429 from Bell-Textron are also still in the running. To date, only the Australian Navy and Oman have had the latter as a truly military operator, but now a new armed “Global Ranger” version of the eight-seater, twin-engine helicopter will also equip the Australian “Special Forces” in as yet unknown numbers.
“The Bell 429 has a relatively new modern design with a high level of safety, flexibility and performance that fully meets the requirements of the Australian Special Forces,” says Graeme Nayler, Managing Director of Babcock Australasia, which is supporting the Australian Army with the procurement. The Australian Department of Defense said it was looking for a helicopter capable of transporting and dropping small teams in urban environments as well as providing fire support and reconnaissance to soldiers. In addition to the Bell 429, according to this report the H145M from Airbus, the AH-6I (export version of the AH-6S) from Boeing and Leonardo Helicopters were also in the running.
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