I was under the impression that we were offered the in service W and the Z but the Z was eliminated early on because it wouldn't be ready in time and was still developmental while the buying the Whiskey with a future upgrade to Zulu being more expensive than the Tiger. I could be wrong but that was the story I was told. As you worked the project though you'd know more about it than me with my mix of, possibly miss remembered, reading and conversations.
The original AI87 offerings were: Boeing/BAE Systems Australia with the AH-64D Apache; Agusta/Tenix Defence Systems with the A129 Scorpion; Bell Helicopter Textron/Raytheon Australia/Helitech Pty Ltd/Rockwell Australia Ltd with the ARH-1Z; and Eurocopter /ADI Ltd/Celsius Hawker Pacific Pty Ltd/Brown & Root Services Asia-Pacific with the Tiger.
The ARH-1Z was very enticing especially since it also included a proposed license to complete development and subsequent manufacture a family of UAVs based upon the of the Eagle Eye Tilt Rotor UAV (see below) in Australia for sale worldwide.
Ultimately I believe it lost out since the basic platform was felt to be at the end of its development potential. Plus the USD:AUD exchange rate was not pretty.
A mate of mine was the CSM for the RAEME support detachment for the Tigers, he was not a fan believing we should have gone either Cobra or Apache for the simple reason the full support package would have been available from the start meaning we would actually have had a deployable asset rather than one where it was hard to get a single helicopter in the air some days due to lack of spares. He actually also said he wished the RAAF had kept the helicopters because they were so time consuming, expensive and difficult to operate and maintain, especially considering a lack of understanding / air mindedness in the upper echelons who just expected a "can do attitude" from the maintainers rather than all the safety / certification BS which some of them just saw as excuses. We all know where the "can do attitude" got the RAN FAA.
I would say that a lot of people don't understand how these programs go down and what looks obvious to those on the outside may not necessarily be so when one has the facts at hand...
And isn't ironic that the Australian Army has had a gut full of the Eurocopter Tiger and now wants to replace them with Apache's! The bloody ADF....I'd be happy to say to the Army - 'You know what... you selected the Tiger over all the other proven and tested designs in Air87! You as a service selected the one and only design that was still in development, not in operational service....and now you want to say thanks, but no thanks! Well try these refurbished Bell H-47 on for size!!!'
As for the record, I would have selected the Agusta/Tenix Defence Systems with the A129 Scorpion proposal! It was simple, cost effective, compact and operationally proven!
P.S. I dare say your aware that we in actual fact ordered Bell AH-1G's during the Vietnam War? Yes but as per usual with the Australian Government, the order was cancelled on 'cost grounds' Yep sad and pathetic!! (I'll try and find the article!!)
M.A.D
