Since November 2009 the Army's air assets are composed exclusively of rotary-wing aircraft (helicopters), the
Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) operating Australian Defence Force's fixed-wing fleet. A limited number of fixed-wing aircraft were used by Aviation Corps, mostly in a surveillance role. A ceremony was held at
RAAF Base Townsville on 20 November 2009 to transfer the last three fixed-wing aircraft from the Army to the RAAF.
Current equipment helicopter The
MRH 90 Taipan (Multi Role Helicopter 90, an Australian variant of the NHI NH90). The aircraft are designed for use in a troop-lift role. The first test flight of an MRH-90 was conducted at
Eurocopter's flight test centre in
Marignane, France on 28 March 2007. The first 13 of the total of 47 helicopters were delivered when the remaining aircraft were suspended until issues had been resolved. The MRH-90 was listed as a Project of Concern by the Australian Government on 28 November 2011 due to operational capability concerns. The first four were built in the main plant in France, the remainder built in Brisbane by Australian Aerospace. The MRH-90 was chosen ahead of the
UH-60M Black Hawk. This decision was primarily made due to the ADF preferring the Black Hawk, but indicating both airframes could accomplish the missions required. The Government of the time therefore saw both aircraft as capable, but Airbus offered jobs and industrial knowledge by offering a production line in SW Queensland which Sikorsky did not. 22 Tigers will be delivered to the Army under the AIR 87 Project, built at the Australian Aerospace Brisbane facility. The Tiger ARH achieved Final Operational Capability on 14 April 2016 originally planned for June 2009 and is in service with the
1st Aviation Regiment. The Tiger will be replaced by the Apache helicopter. The
S-70A-9 Black Hawk was operated by the 171st Aviation Squadron in the 6th Aviation Regiment. Its role is to provide support to
Special Operations Command. The Black Hawks were manufactured in Australia by
Hawker de Havilland, under licence from
Sikorsky. As of 2015, 34 are in service. The
CH-47D Chinook is operated by C Squadron, 5 Aviation Regiment. C Squadron was raised on the Army order of battle in June 1995, on the return of the Chinooks to Australia after re-manufacture by Boeing USA. The Chinooks' primary role is logistic and battlefield support. They can also be used in the troop-lift role. The then current fleet of seven CH-47Ds have been replaced by 14 new CH-47Fs, the first of which was delivered in May 2015. The
EC135 T2+ is operated by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and
Boeing Defence Australia at
723 Squadron,
HMAS Albatross. The EC135 is a twin-engine light utility helicopter used primarily for aircrew training but has been deployed on operations. All new Army Aviation aircrew are trained on the EC135.
Historical equipment Fixed wing (left) and
CH-47 Chinook (right) Army Aviation operated fixed-wing aircraft for a period of almost 50 years, from taking delivery of
Cessna 180s in 1961 until 20 November 2009.
173rd Surveillance Squadron, based at Oakey, was the last operator of fixed-wing aircraft, using three
Beechcraft B300 King Air 350s in Command and Control, Surveillance, and Transport roles. Other aircraft types operated were the
Pilatus Porter, the
GAF Nomad and the
de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter.
Rotary wing The
Bell 206B-1 Kiowa (1972–2019) was primarily employed for airborne observation and flying training. It was also used for the command and control of tactical aircraft, such as the F/A-18 and F-111. They often worked closely with
artillery and
armoured cavalry units. The Kiowa was replaced in 2018 by the Eurocopter EC135 under HATS. ==Training==