It has taken a long time, but now a decision on the successor to the army’s ageing Alouette III helicopters (Militär Aktuell reported) has been made: According to a recent report of the Kronen Zeitung, Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner has decided to hold talks with the Italian government and the Italian military regarding a possible joint procurement of the Italian multi-purpose helicopter AW169 from Leonardo and thus against the competition from Airbus Helicopters and Bell. After Bell and Airbus Helicopters, in particular, had recently made a big splash (see links to our reports at the end of the text), the choice has now fallen on the largest of the three potential Alouette III successors. According to the disaster control package from 2018 and today’s Krone, the procurement volume of the total of 18 helicopters is around 300 million euros; as planned, twelve helicopters are to be stationed in Aigen and used there purely as operational aircraft and the other six are to be used to train new pilots. It has always been emphasized to the author that these machines – depending on the number of pilot candidates – will rotate through the Air Force and Air Defence School in Langenlebarn, so the equipment should be “identical”.
Due to the size of the basic design of the AW169 (4.6 tons, up to ten people can be transported), the procurement can also be viewed critically – not because of the quality of the device, but in terms of life cycle costs. Although the large load volume means that all tasks (transportation, fire-fighting operations, etc.) can be more than fulfilled, the operating costs are significantly higher compared to the Bell 429 and the Airbus H-145M. This seems suboptimal, especially in the area of training, in view of the fact that the budget is not expected to improve significantly in the future. However, it is also possible that the army is already looking to the future with its procurement, when a successor to the AB-212 should also be available by 2030 at the latest (Militär Aktuell reported). It is conceivable that the AW169 is now being planned as both an Alouette III successor and an AB-212 successor. However, if the total transport (space) capacity of ALL types AFTER the AB-212 and OH-58B have been retired is calculated in “lifts”, for example, it would probably be necessary to consider significantly more than 18 examples of the Italian 5-tonne helicopter. https://militaeraktuell.at/im-gespraech-mit-leonardo-manager-cesare-caccia/ According to the Kronen Zeitung, the first Italian helicopter is expected to land in Austria as early as mid-2022. Two thirds of the 300 million euros have been earmarked for the purchase of the rotorcraft, with the remainder for technology, logistics, training new pilots and the new infrastructure. Of course, this sum – but that would be the case for every type – cannot reflect the life cycle costs in accordance with the international rule of one-third to two-thirds ratio of procurement to operating costs. And we haven’t even mentioned the armament that is probably planned for some of the airframes – after all, the equipment is being procured for military use despite its basic civilian design.
Further information: Interview with Leonardo manager Cesare Caccia, Interview with H-145M program manager Mark Henning and Interview with Bell Europe Managing Director Duncan van de Velde.
Here you can also find more news about Leonardo, here to further news about helicopter manufacturer Bell and here to further news about Airbus Helicopters.
