Ukraine asks Australia for decommissioned Taipan helicopters
Kyiv • UNN
Ukraine has requested 45 Taipan helicopters, and Australia is secretly dismantling them.
Ukraine has requested 45 army multipurpose helicopters of the Taipan type. This was reported by the Asia Pacific Defense Reporter, UNN reports.
Details
Currently, technicians are secretly disassembling all 45 Taipan army multipurpose helicopters and burying their parts on the territory of the defense enterprise. Each of them is worth about $20 million on the used equipment market, but it was decided to secretly destroy them in the hope that no one would notice, the newspaper writes.
After the story was published, Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said the helicopters would be disposed of in a way that maximizes their value. The decision to scrap the helicopters came at the same time as the announcement on September 29 that they would not return to service after a crash during Talisman Sabre exercises that killed four soldiers.
However, according to the APDR, the federal government recently received a request from Ukraine for the decommissioned and unneeded Taipans.
As noted, the helicopters are in excellent condition.
