I'm stirring you Greg, they fly over my house regularly and I actually quite like them and believe they deliver a much needed capability and will serve us well (hopefully only ever in training and exercises). They also happen to have been a procurement debacle like almost every other program from the late 90s to the mid / late 2000s, the problem is not the platform but rather the process they were procured under with its unrealistic schedule, lack of risk mitigation (it could be argued there was actually no understanding of the risks involved), poor contract, lack of accountability etc etc. Not just this project but every defence project of the time with the exception of a handful of FMS buys.
Actually if I recall correctly the front runner was actually a modified Mangusta which to be honest would not have met a number of key requirements and the Tiger was definitely the better option of the two. The Apache was seen as too specialised, too expensive and basically too much helicopter for the requirement, which was actually more along the lines of the cancelled Comanche. The Cobra has its fans but the model offered was the Whiskey, not the Zulu as many think, so was actually approaching the end of its life cycle which alone made it unsuitable for the Australian requirement.
Due to the timing of the Australian competition and the requirement for an armed reconnaissance helicopter the Tiger was actually the best option. Things changed, the world changed and the Tiger took a lot longer to get into service than it should have, it was a lot more developmental than realised, Australia actually having to take the lead in some areas and force to wait for others. The sad, or scary, thing is, now it is in service and doing what it was intended to do, come midlife, it may actually prove better value for money to replace them than to retain them.
My digs at the type are more out of frustration at our dodgy (more incompetent than dishonest) procurements during the period.
