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Old 26th November 2011, 12:57 PM
Bob C Bob C is offline
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Default RAN Sea Kings As Fire Bombers ????

The terrible bushfires which have destroyed parts of Margaret River in W A this week made me wonder why former RAN Sea King helicopters could not be converted to "fire bombers" rather than being offered for sale on the world market ?

The Minister for Defence Materiel, Jason Clare, announced earlier this year that the Reguest for Tender would include :

• Five complete helicopters;
• Three airframes; (former RN airframes for spares)
• A simulator; and
• Associated unique equipment and parts.

The Sea Kings will be withdrawn from service in December 2011 and the fleet has flown in excess of 60,000 hours in service with the RAN. The five complete airframes being offered for sale have each flown less than 9,000 hours.

"Civilianised" Sea Kings would also be ideal for disaster relief work throughout the country and elsewhere in South East Asia and the Pacific Islands. They did great work during the Queensland floods earlier this year as well as in Aceh a few years ago.

By his own words, Mr Clare has acknowledged that....." the Sea King is a really versatile helicopter and a proven capability. The Sea Kings could be used for a range of things like fire fighting, disaster relief, search and rescue, by another Navy or commercially,” Mr Clare said.

So why not retain them in Australia for fire fighting and disaster relief ? They are big helicopters and would supplement other military and commercial types used for such purposes. They're similar to and probably younger than the S61 airframes now in use in W A and other countries have "civilianised" many former military aircraft.

The Sea Kings could be retained at Nowra and there would be a pool of recent air and ground crew available to fly and sevice them. Perhaps they could be added to the inventory of another Government agency at a reasonable cost - AMSA ?

Former RAAFies will be operating some Caribous in that recently announced commercial operation throughout the Pacific Islands so the Sea Kings could be operated in a simiar vein, albeit under a Government agency.

It's not such a wild idea and I think would be worth considering.
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Old 26th November 2011, 01:06 PM
Mick F Mick F is offline
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One word - Cost

The cost of maintaining the airframes just for firefighting or other emergency relief work would be prohibitive.

Cheaper to either use existing aircraft that are remaining in the Defence fleet, or contract it out to commercial operators.

Mick
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Old 26th November 2011, 01:21 PM
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Ray P. Ray P. is offline
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Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought that fire relief was the responsibility of the various State Governments. Whilst the ADF does perform Defence Aid to the Civil Community (DACC), it does so with assets that are purpose built for contibuting to the overall mission to protect Australia and its National interests. Noting the RFT that is out, I can't see anything preventing the State Governments from tendering for these assets. However; the cost of the airframe would be just peanuts compared with the cost of aircrew, maintenance support, parts, spares, training, aircrew currency and training, maintenance training, fuel, upkeep of Ground Support Equipment, engineering support, flight/maintenance manual updates, etc, etc. The Sea Kings are being replaced with the MRH90 which is likely going to be able to fulfil (or perhaps exceed) the DACC roles undertaken by the Sea King. It is also worth noting that the ADF is very keen to replace this platform following the tragedy on Nias Island a few years back. Although the accident identified issues with the ADF's technical airworthiness system, the age of the aircraft is percieved by the general public as a cause for concern.
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Old 26th November 2011, 03:52 PM
Bob C Bob C is offline
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I hear what you say Ray ; like I said just an idea but your comments make me wonder again how organizations overseas deal with these issues - ie the operator of the Skycranes for instance ? And how will the Caribou operation cope ?

And speaking about the age of aircraft, the public shouldn't go looking too far at some of the stuff flying around as fire bombers - they might get a shock. Or some of the airliners for that matter.
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