Low hanging fruit?

Defence reviews Navy’s Seasprite program

The Royal Australian Navy’s ailing Seasprite is once again facing the axe after Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon announced the helicopter had been identified as one of two troubled defence programs currently under review during his opening speech at the PAC 08 naval exposition and sea power conference in Sydney in late January.

The $1 billion Seasprite helicopter project is now running six years late after technical problems with its automatic flight control system (AFCS) forced the helicopters to be grounded in April 2006.