Aussie Tigers so far unaffected by fleet-wide German grounding

Germany’s Bundeswehr grounded its entire fleet of Tiger helicopters on 2 August when it was informed that certain bolts in flight-critical areas were defective.

FILE PHOTO: An Australian Army Tiger ARH Tiger fires its chain gun during Exercise Chong Ju at Puckapunyal, Victoria. Photo by Sergeant Brian Hartigan.

The fleet was gradually returned to flying as the bolts were replaced, with the last one declared fit on 15 August.

CONTACT asked the Australian Defence Force if the German Tiger grounding would affect the Aussie Tiger fleet.

Today, a Defence spokesman said that while the Australian ARH Tiger fleet does contain some of the same bolts as the German Tiger fleet, the Australian Defence Force had assessed the risk as very low.

“Australian Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) Tiger operations have not been restricted at this time,” Defence said.

“An inspection regime has been implemented while further information is sought from the original equipment manufacturer.”

CONTACT also asked Defence for an update on the MRH-90 fleet-wide grounding that commenced on 7 July, and we are awaiting that response.

However, we do understand that the commencement of planned rectification works were delayed by a further week on our last update.

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RELATED STORIES:

• Aussies fly Kiwi choppers as own fleet grounded
• MRH-90 fleet still grounded – only ‘minor modification’ needed
• In 2017, the entire Australian Tiger ARH fleet was grounded for 13 weeks.
• Tiger replacement project kicks off

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