Next Batch Of Australian Black Hawks Scheduled For Early 2024
Australia’s defence ministry has announced that it expects the next batch of UH-60M Black Hawks it has ordered to arrive in early 2024, after a request to the United States to expedite their delivery.
The announcement was made alongside the Wednesday release of a video showing the first flight operations of the three UH-60Ms that have already been delivered to the Australian Army. The three helicopters were delivered in July and August 2023, and started flying missions in September. The Australian Army is set to receive a total of 40 Black Hawks as a replacement for its now-retired MRH-90 Taipans.
Following a meeting with United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III at the Pentagon on 31 October, Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles announced that the United States had promised to speed up Black Hawk deliveries. Marles said that Australia was “enormously grateful” for the move, but did not provide details on the accelerated schedule at the time.
While the decision to replace the long-troubled Taipans with Black Hawks was made in 2021 under the previous government, the Taipan fleet was permanently retired ahead of schedule in July after a crash during the Talisman Sabre 2023 exercise killed four soldiers.
Prior to the crash, the Taipan fleet was planned to be retired by December 2024, with the UH-60M fleet expected to become operational at about the same time. Following the crash, Marles said the decision to permanently retire the Taipans was made as the investigation into the crash was likely to have kept them grounded until their original retirement date.
The Taipans were procured to replace the Australian Army’s original Black Hawk fleet, but continued troubles with the Taipan meant that the original Black Hawks continued in the special operations support role until their retirement on 10 December 2021, the same day as the announcement that the Taipans would be replaced by more Black Hawks.