Find out if Kaman will buy them back or take them back for a reduction in their claims against us.

 

Failing that convert them to components as the spare parts value would be substantially higher than the value of aircraft are non operational.

 

Final option see how much it will cost to convert them into operational utility aircraft and sell them in this condition or even use them for the proposed Customs OPV's (full circle).

 

Something that caught my eye in the Australian:

 

In March 2007, the helicopter's manufacturer, US-based Kaman Aviation, warned the Howard government that it would face a lengthy legal battle if it scrapped the program. Kaman said that cancellation would generate an arbitration process that would uphold both the reputation of the Seasprite platform and its manufacturer and expose weaknesses in the Defence Department's equipment procurement system.

NOOOooooooooooo!!! We shouldn't be spending a single cent more on these bloody things, it is just throwing good money after bad. Either sell them off for parts or to somebody else who wants to convert them, or dump them on a firing range and use them for M-1 target practice.

If we are going to get Custom's OPV's they won't need a fully-fledged military helecopter, just something that can do basic observation and transport work. Just fit them out with a navalised version of whatever light training helecopter we end up getting, perhaps with a FLIR unit for night observation and pintal mounted GPMG to scare Indonesian fishermen with.  At least if we do that we know the bloody things will work and we will be working towards the original goal of AIR 9000, which was to rationalise the number of basic helecopter airframes in the ADF down from 13 to 4.  

The problem is that Kaman haven't got much to lose, they don't really do much other than the Seasprite and K-Max (do they?). As such, they may try to do as much as humanly possible to muddy the waters, and make the ADF procurement process look like it was handled by fools.

 

In a sense, it is a pity that they didn't just strip out the insides and fit them with a simple FLIR and hoist, and use them for simple VertRep and SAR - okay, the most expensive utility choppers, but it would have avoided some of this unpleasantness.

and make the ADF procurement process look like it was handled by fools.

Funny old world isn't it.

 

I don't remember EXACTLY why the Sprogs won the comp. Can't simply be the whole engine commonality thing.

 

I'll have to go back and re read the articles at the time, but I wonder why the Lynx wasn't chosen.

 

We would have had it in service years ago. Kinda reminds me of the Wedgy program. Imagine if we had ordered E-767 instead.

 

Sigh.

 

 

I'll have to go back and re read the articles at the time, but I wonder why the Lynx wasn't chosen.