CH-47F in-country support

Australian Army soldiers of the 8th/9th Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment, board a CH-47 Chinook during a noncombatant evacuation operation at Shoalwater Bay Training Area as part of Exercise Hamel 2018. LSIS Jake Badior/Australian Army

Boeing Defence Australia (BDA) announced on October 4, 2018, that it is partnering with Australia’s Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group (CASG) to consolidate existing through life support services for the Australian Army’s CH-47F Chinook leet.

The Australian Army operates ten CH-47F helicopters, based in Townsville with the 5th Aviation Regiment, and the new in-country support work will be undertaken at both Townsville and Oakey, home of the Australian Army Aviation Training Centre.

BDA’s General Manager, Murray Braybrook, said: “This new partnership has been structured to maintain the Australian Army’s alignment with the global Chinook leet while standing up in-country engineering and supply chain capabilities to complement the training and maintenance services we currently deliver in Australia.”

In other Chinook-related news, the parent Boeing company has won a $160 million contract for the continued support for the rotor blades of the US Army’s H-47 Chinook leets.

The five-year performancebased contract extends the original contract signed in 2012 and covers maintenance, repair and overhaul of rotor blades installed on the US Army’s more than 450 Chinooks around the world.