Boeing CH 47 Chinook in Australian service

Acquisition

During the early years of the 1960s the Australian Army and Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) considered new types of tactical transport aircraft to replace the RAAF's obsolete Douglas Dakotas. The Army wanted a simple and rugged aircraft that could be purchased immediately for this role, and pressed for the acquisition of de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribous. However, the RAAF regarded the Caribou as inadequate for this role and preferred to acquire a more sophisticated aircraft type, leading to delays in the selection process.

This disagreement came to an end in September 1962, when as part of the expansion of the military in response to Indonesia's policy of "confrontation" with its neighbours, the RAAF was directed by the government to conduct an urgent evaluation of short takeoff and landing aircraft and heavy-lift helicopters, which could be purchased to improve the Army's tactical mobility. A team of seven RAAF officers headed by Group Captain Charles Read, the director of operational requirements, was dispatched to the United States and assessed the Sikorsky S-61, Vertol 107-II and CH-47 Chinook helicopters. The team judged the Chinook to be clearly the most suitable of these types, and recommended that several be acquired; this was in line with the Army's preference. The government subsequently accepted a recommendation made by the RAAF to acquire a package of twelve Caribou fixed-wing aircraft and eight Chinooks, and placed an order for these aircraft within weeks of the evaluation being ordered. The Chinook order was subsequently cancelled by the government when it was learned that it would take several years for the helicopters to be delivered, and the RAAF's orders of Caribous and Bell UH-1 Iroquois tactical transport helicopters were instead expanded.

The Australian military continued to consider the acquisition of a heavy-lift helicopters throughout the 1960s, and a formal program was launched by the RAAF in 1969. Another team of RAAF officers travelled to the United States, and evaluated the Sikorsky CH-53 and the Chinook. The team leader, Group Captain Peter Raw, ultimately recommended that CH-53s be ordered. Senior RAAF officers and the Army were not pleased with this outcome, and the Air Board rejected Raw's report. Read, who was now an air vice-marshal and deputy chief of the air staff, was directed to review the choice of helicopters, and again recommended that Chinooks be acquired. He justified this choice on the grounds that the Chinook could carry more cargo than the CH-53 and was better suited for operations in the mountains of the Australian-administered Territory of Papua and New Guinea. Read's recommendation was accepted by the government, and an order for twelve CH-47C Chinooks was placed in August 1970. It was planned to rotate the helicopters in and out of service, with six being available at any time. The order was suspended later in 1970 when a series of engine problems affected the United States Army's CH-47Cs, but was reinstated in March 1972 after these issues were resolved. The total cost of the purchase was $A37 million. The order made Australia the first export customer for the CH-47.

It was decided to station the Chinooks at RAAF Base Amberley, Queensland, located at the midpoint between the Army's main field formations based in the outskirts of Sydney in New South Wales and the north Queensland city of Townsville. Construction began on support facilities for the helicopters at Amberley shortly after the order for them was confirmed in 1972.

Royal Australian Air Force

No. 12 Squadron was re-raised at Amberley on 3 September 1973 to operate the Chinooks. This unit had previously flown bombers between 1939 and 1948 before being renumbered as No. 1 Squadron. The twelve CH-47s were transported from the United States to Australia on board the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne, and were unloaded at Brisbane on 28 March 1974. In April that year it was reported that six of the helicopters were to be placed in storage as a cost-saving measure; as of 1979 these aircraft had still not been flown. No. 12 Squadron began conducting training flights on 8 July 1974, and the unit was declared operational in December the next year. The unit typically had between four and six CH-47Cs operational at any time throughout the type's service, with the fleet being rotated through long-term storage at RAAF Base Amberley as planned. The CH-47Cs had a crew of four, comprising two pilots, a loadmaster and one other, and could transport up to 33 passengers or 11,129 kilograms (24,535 lb) of cargo.

The Chinooks' main role was to support the Army. The helicopters were used to transport troops, artillery guns, ammunition, fuel and other supplies. They also provided part of the aeromedical evacuation capability available to the Army. While the Chinooks generally operated in Northern Australia, they made frequent deployments to other parts of Australia, and No. 12 Squadron conducted an annual high-altitude flying training exercise in Papua New Guinea. As part of the security measures introduced after the Sydney Hilton Hotel bombing on 13 February 1978, Chinooks were used to transport Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser and several other national leaders from Sydney to Bowral for a Commonwealth Heads of Government Regional Meeting. In August 1980, a CH-47 was flown from Amberley to Malaysia, and used to recover a Royal Malaysian Air Force S-61 helicopter that had crashed in a remote location. This was believed to have been the longest distance a helicopter had flown up to that time, and remains the longest flight to have been conducted by a RAAF helicopter.

During their RAAF service, the Chinooks also undertook a range of non-military tasks. The helicopters frequently formed part of the Australian Defence Force's response to natural disasters, including delivering food for people and livestock cut off by floods. They were also used for civilian construction tasks such as emplacing lighthouses and carrying air conditioning plants to the top of tall buildings. On two occasions Chinooks supported Queensland Police Service drug eradication efforts in remote parts of the state by transporting fuel for RAAF Iroquois helicopters and carrying seized narcotics. In August 1981, two CH-47s lifted containers from the cargo ship Waigani Express to enable the vessel to be refloated after it ran aground in the Torres Strait. A similar operation was undertaken to free the Anro Asia when it ran aground near Caloundra, Queensland, in November the same year. Another unusual task was conducted in December 1981 when a Chinook transported two bulldozers onto a grounded iron ore carrier near Port Hedland, Western Australia, so that they could be used to reposition the ship's load.

The RAAF's Chinook fleet suffered two serious accidents. On 26 June 1975, A15-011 crashed when one of its engine turbines disintegrated. No. 3 Aircraft Depot was assigned responsibility for repairing the helicopter, but it did not reenter service until 21 May 1981 as the maintenance unit lacked experience with major helicopter repairs. On 4 February 1985, A15-001 crashed into Perseverance Dam near Toowoomba, Queensland, after striking power wires. The helicopter's pilot, an exchange officer from the Royal Air Force, was killed and the other three aircrew suffered minor injuries. The helicopter was written off and used as a fire training aid at Amberley.

In November 1986 the Chiefs of Staff Committee and Minister for Defence Kim Beazley decided to transfer all of the RAAF's Iroquois and Sikorsky S-70 Black Hawk battlefield helicopters to the Army; the Chinooks remained with the RAAF at this time. In May 1989 the RAAF and Army jointly decided to withdraw the Chinooks from service. This decision was made to reduce costs, the Army believing that the Black Hawks would provide sufficient air lift capability. Due to the Chinooks' high operating costs, only six of the helicopters were in service at the time. No. 12 Squadron ceased flying on 30 June 1989, and was disbanded on 25 August that year.

Australian Army

While it was intended to sell the Chinooks after they were withdrawn from service, experience soon demonstrated that the Black Hawks were unable to fully replace them. In particular, it was found that heavy-lift helicopters were needed to transport fuel supplies for the Black Hawks during exercises and operations. As a result, plans to sell the Chinooks were put on hold in late 1989, and the Army and RAAF began investigating options to reactivate them. The 1991 Force Structure Review recommended that between four and six Chinooks be reintroduced to service to support the Black Hawks, with the helicopters preferably being upgraded to CH-47D standard.

A deal to upgrade several of the Chinooks was reached in May 1991. Under this arrangement, seven of the surviving CH-47Cs were sold to the US Army for $A40 million, with these funds being used to partly cover the cost of upgrading the remaining four to CH-47D status. The total cost of the project was $A62 million, of which $A42 million was required to upgrade the four helicopters and the remainder to cover the cost of spare parts, administration and new facilities for the Chinooks at Townsville. All eleven Chinooks were shipped to the United States in September 1993, and the upgraded helicopters returned to Australia in 1995. It was decided to transfer the Chinooks to the Australian Army, as by this time the RAAF no longer had significant expertise in operating the type.

The four CH-47Ds upgraded were the former A15-002, 003, 004, and 006, now renumbered as A15-102, 103, 104, and 106 respectively. They were assigned to C Squadron of the 5th Aviation Regiment, which was based at Townsville, and also comprised two squadrons equipped with Black Hawks and six Iroquois helicopters used as gunships. It was determined that four Chinooks were not sufficient to meet the ADF's needs during the late 1990s, leading to an order for two newly-built CH-47Ds in 1998. These helicopters were delivered in 2001, and designated as A15-151 and A15-152.

Following their transfer to the Army, the Chinooks were used in similar roles to those they had undertaken in RAAF service. The first operational deployment of the Army Chinooks began in November 1997, when two of the helicopters and three Black Hawks departed for Papua New Guinea. This force was used to transport food supplies in the highlands of the country following a severe drought, and returned to Australia in March 1998.

In 2003 a detachment of three CH-47Ds was deployed to the Middle East as part of the Australian contribution to the invasion of Iraq. The detachment formed part of the Special Operations Task Group, and operated from Jordan to transport supplies and personnel to Australian special forces units operating in Western Iraq throughout the initial stage of the conflict. One of the tasks undertaken by the detachment was flying commandos from the 4th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment to Al Asad Airbase after the facility was captured by Special Air Service Regiment units. This deployment was the first time Australian military helicopters had participated in combat since the Vietnam War.

From 2006 to 2013 a detachment of two Chinooks operated in Afghanistan as part of the Australian forces deployed to the country. The initial detachment arrived at Kandahar International Airport in March 2006, and was tasked with supporting the Australian Special Forces Task Group in the country. After the Special Forces Task Group was withdrawn in September 2013 the helicopters remained in the country and were used to support Coalition forces, with a particular emphasis on the Australian units which were located in Urozgan Province. The detachment was withdrawn to Australia during the Afghan winters, but redeployed to the country each spring. By the end of the final rotation on 14 September 2013 the helicopters had flown more than 6,000 hours in combat and transported almost 40,000 personnel.

Two Australian CH-47Ds were destroyed in Afghanistan. On 30 May 2011, A15-102 crashed in Zabul Province, resulting in the death of an Army unmanned aerial vehicle pilot who was travelling on board as a passenger. As it was impractical to recover the helicopter, it was destroyed by Coalition forces. The official inquiry into the crash found that it was caused by a known issue in which Chinooks suffered uncommanded pitch oscillations while flying through dense altitudes, and that the aircrew had not been adequate trained to prevent such incidents. A15-103 was written off following a hard landing in Kandahar Province on 22 June 2012, resulting in minor injuries to one of its aircrew. Both of the Chinooks at Kandahar International Airport also suffered significant damage in April 2013, when the airport was struck by a severe hail storm. Two CH-47Ds - 15-201 and 15-202 were purchased in December 2011 to replace A15-102.

A project to acquire CH-47F Chinooks to replace the CH-47Ds was established in the mid-2000s. This purchase was approved by the Australian Government in February 2010, with seven CH-47Fs being ordered. A contract for these helicopters was signed on 19 March that year. The total cost of the CH-47F project, including the construction of new facilities and the acquisition of two flight simulators, was $631 million. The Australian CH-47Fs are fitted with equipment to better enable them to operate from the Royal Australian Navy's Canberra class landing helicopter dock vessels, but are otherwise identical to the aircraft operated by the US Army.

Australia's first two CH-47Fs were delivered in early April 2015 and entered service with the 5th Aviation Regiment on 5 May that year. At this time it was planned for C Squadron to be fully operational with the new Chinooks by January 2017. The seventh CH-47F was delivered three weeks ahead of schedule in September 2015. Conversion training was undertaken using the two flight simulators, and the CH-47Fs helicopters achieved initial operating capacity in April 2016. A further three CH-47Fs were ordered in December 2015 for $US150 million, including spare parts, related equipment and some support costs. All three helicopters were delivered in June 2016, two and half months earlier than planned. During the year the CH-47s were also approved to operate from the Canberra class vessels after trials proved successful. The 2016 Defence White Paper and its supporting documentation stated that the CH-47Fs will receive modifications to better enable them to perform aeromedical evacuation tasks by the 2025–26 financial year, and that it is intended to regularly upgrade the helicopters so that they can continue to be supported through the US military's logistics system.

All of the CH-47Ds were retired by September 2016. The helicopters were preserved in Australia. A15-202 was handed over to the Australian War Memorial in April 2016, A15-104 will be displayed at the Australian Army Flying Museum and the former Air Force helicopter A15-106 will be transferred to the RAAF Museum. The other three CH-47Ds were retained by the Army for lying training: A15-151 and A15-152 are used for general and special forces training respectively and A15-201 serves as a maintenance systems training airframe.