Two extra CH-47F Chinook medium-lift transport helicopters will arrive at RAAF Base Townsville after an expedited sale from the US Authorities. The 2 extra plane will be a part of the Australian Military Aviation Command’s current 12 CH-47F Chinook helicopters operated by C Squadron, fifth Aviation Regiment. Australia’s defence trade will proceed to play a key function in supporting the elevated CH-47F Chinook fleet, with a further $69.5 million funding into the Australian economic system over the following 20 years. The Australian Authorities thank United States counterparts, together with the US Military, for his or her assist on this fast acquisition.
Minister for Defence Business, the Hon Pat Conroy MP mentioned,”The 2 extra Chinooks have been a part of the Australian Authorities’s $595 million funding in heavy-lift battlefield aviation functionality. The Authorities is demonstrating its dedication to bolstering Defence’s means to arrange our ADF to be future prepared. The Chinook is Defence’s largest helicopter, which has been instrumental in latest missions together with Operation Bushfire Help in 2019-20, Operation Tonga Help in 2022 and Operation Queensland/New South Wales Flood Help in 2022. The helicopters will present Defence with extra elevate capability and strengthen Military’s means to assist operations globally.”
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A call by the US Military within the mid-2000s to interchange all its CH-47Ds with new-build CH-47Fs by 2017 endangered the viability of the Australian Chinooks. This was as a result of the Australian Military’s preparations for the logistical assist of its small variety of CH-47Ds have been closely leveraged off these for the US Military’s massive fleet. The Australian Authorities supplied preliminary approval for a CH-47F buy in September 2007. The Authorities selected to obtain the helicopters by means of the US Authorities’s Overseas Navy Gross sales program to minimise potential dangers to the schedule and value of the venture. In April 2021 the US Division of State accepted a possible sale of 4 CH-47Fs from US Military holdings to Australia.
The Boeing CH-47 Chinook is a tandem rotor helicopter developed by American rotorcraft firm Vertol and manufactured by Boeing Vertol. The Chinook is a heavy-lift helicopter that’s among the many heaviest lifting Western helicopters. Its title, Chinook, is from the Native American Chinook folks of Oregon and Washington state. The primary CH-47F, an upgraded CH-47D, made its maiden flight; the primary manufacturing mannequin rolled out on 15 June 2006 at Boeing’s facility in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, and first flew on 23 October 2006. Upgrades embody 4,868-shaft-horsepower (3,630 kW) Honeywell engines and the airframe that includes higher single-piece development to decrease upkeep necessities. The Boeing CH-47F Chinook is the most important helicopter within the Australian Military fleet.
