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ÖP Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner may have made a decision: Leonardo’s model will be awarded the contract for 18 new helicopters.
Vienna. The decision on which multipurpose helicopter the armed forces will fly in the future should have been made over the weekend. According to a report in the Sunday edition of the “Kronen Zeitung”, ÖVP Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner chose the Italian manufacturer Leonardo and its AW169M model. Officially, the defense minister does not want to announce the decision until next week, she said from her office on Sunday.
Recently, three manufacturers had competed for the award: in addition to Leonardo, there was an offer from Bell from the US and Airbus from Germany and France. With the latter, however, the Republic of Austria is currently in legal disputes related to Eurofighters, so an advance decision by Airbus was considered unlikely.
The 18 new helicopters should be ready for use in Austria by mid-2022. At a cost of 300 million euros, they are also the most expensive new acquisition by the armed forces since the Eurofighters almost 20 years ago.
More expensive than the competition
As already reported by “Die Presse”, the reason for the new acquisition is the age of the Alouette helicopters used so far. After 50 years, a successor was sought for light transport helicopters that are used for rescue flights and border surveillance.
However, unlike its competitors, Leonardo’s Italian helicopters are 30 percent more expensive in terms of operating costs, which is why the Finance Ministry ÖVP initially felt a headwind. However, it is likely that they have been favored in the General Staff and have now been awarded the contract.
After the bad experience with the Eurofighter purchase and numerous allegations of corruption, the defense department wanted to take a different route this time and buy the helicopters as part of a government-to-government deal.
Tanner did not make his decision as a result of a tender, but asked all the armed forces of the European Union (and Canada) if they could provide helicopters. Italy has obviously done the race now.
The predecessor Kunasek is happy
Tanner himself did not comment on the rumored decision, but his predecessor, former FPÖ Defense Minister Mario Kunasek, spoke about the preparatory work during his tenure: “I am happy for the soldiers who will soon be able to complete their training and operations with a modern device “. , Kunasek was quoted in a broadcast. (APA / Red.)
(“Die Presse”, print edition, 21.09.2020)
