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Australia weighs PPP vs traditional purchasing for new helo training fleet
Australia is still to make decisions on whether it uses traditional capital acquisition or public private partnership (PPP) methods to finance its planned Project Air 9000 phase 7 helicopter training system requirement.
The project, intended to replace the Australian Defence Force’s AS350BA Squirrel and Boeing Kiowa helicopters, has already received initial government approvals to proceed to a competitive source selection.
The new system is expected to achieve initial operational capability between June 2011 and June 2013.
Head of helicopter acquisition projects in the Australian Defence Materiel Organisation, MAJGEN Tony Fraser, says that a decision on acquisition method is expected in coming months.
“We are still considering the traditional and public private partnership [PPP]. We will only release one tender to industry, we will not combine both and ask for both” he says.
“If it is traditional we will get it out later this year; if it is PPP it will be mid next year probably before we get the tender out....We need to gain and source that expertise on PPP.”
Fraser said that PPP is currently undergoing re-evaluation within the Australian government sector. He says there is “a lot of discussion, particularly with the change in [Australian] government and with the global economic environment, considerable change about cost of cash and dollars.”
Government is assessing “whether it really is the right thing and [Defence has] an appetite, a genuine appetite. We have really only done the one defence related PPP and that was the joint operations [command and control] facility.”
Australia’s new defence capability plan for 2009-2014, released 1 July, says that the project is estimated to cost around A$1 billion.
DCP 2009 says the project will encompass “elements of live, synthetic and classroom aviation instruction, to overcome the broadening gap between the current rotary training systems and the advanced operational helicopters in the current and planned future ADF inventories...
“The helicopters are likely to be commercial- or military-off-the-shelf (COTS or MOTS). There is potential for Australian industry involvement in assembly of the aircraft and the development of the training system. The training system potentially includes an Aviation Training Vessel [for Navy] which would have significant potential for Australian industry involvement in design and construction.”
By Peter La Franchi - Asia Pacific Editor
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