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Six retired Australian Army UH-1H Iroquois helicopters have been reserved for sale to historical organisations, Minister for Defence Materiel Jason Clare has announced.
The helicopters will be offered to organisations “in Australia that have strong historic connections with the aircraft and can maintain the aircraft as static displays,” Clare said, adding that it was “important that we preserve them to ensure their contribution to our military heritage is not forgotten.”
The Australian Army retired the last of its Iroquois in 2007 after a distinguished career dating back to the mid 1960s. “During the Vietnam War, the helicopters provided vital support to troops on the ground. They were used for casualty evacuations, patrols and resupply,” Clare said. “The Iroquois’ final deployment was to Sumatra in Indonesia to provide assistance following the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami.”
The sale of the aircraft is dependent upon approval by the US State Department, and it estimated that the cost of demilitarising and preparing the aircraft for display will be about $100,000 each.
Eleven Iroquois have already been allocated for display at locations around Australia, and an announcement about the tender for the six follow on aircraft is expected to be made in the coming months. A further five Iroquois will be retained by the ADF as training aids.
John A Gates
says:The item about the Iroquois,absolutely highlights the Labor Governments attitude to what is their view of Australia’s Military History. Remember the cuts to funding for the National War memoriial?. The great majority of Air and Defence Museums, operate with volunteer helpers only; and money is always hard to come by. With the incredible number of billions and the inept handling of most programmes, including Defence,this new tax on the Museums etc., must be, in some way, be to balance the conscience of the revelant Ministers and their minions of advisers. What a slap in the face for these guardians of our history.
William Jones
says:As much as I am interested in history,John may want to have a think about wether he would prefer money spent on the RAAF or on ‘memorials’.It is though I agree an important piece and should be preserved,and I am sure that the RSL’s would be interested in sponsoring that.They,acknowledgebly are those who have entrusted themselves with the preservation of Australian military history,outside.of course the ‘official’ organisations.