Australia announced on Wednesday that it would complete a sale approved by the U.S. State Department last August by purchasing 40 Black Hawk military helicopters from the United States for an estimated A$2.8 billion ($1.96 billion).
The Army’s fleet of MRH-90 Taipan helicopters will be replaced with Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) UH-60M Black Hawks. These helicopters have been plagued for years by maintenance problems. The new helicopters will start to arrive this year.
Defense Minister Richard Marles said on Wednesday to ABC news that ‘we just haven’t gotten the flying hours out of the Taipan that we would need. We have faith in our ability to obtain that from the Black Hawks. It’s a platform that we are accustomed to.’
As China looks to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific region, Australia has been increasing its defence spending over the past few years.
An acrimonious diplomatic dispute with France resulted from a 2021 decision to replace French-made submarines with nuclear submarines that would be built by the United States and Britain.
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