www.dsca.mil
It seems that the Osprey might have overtaken the Chinook when it comes to the Heavy-Lift requirement. Although it would be amazing if they do go ahead and procure the Ospreys, I am quite troubled over the notion of whether the Army can effectively operate them with the relatively high Cost-per-Flight Hour compared to the Chooks.
Quite a surprise too for me, while I was still working in the industry (around late 2018 - early 2019) I vaguely recalled of rumors that Bell were in discussions with the Ministry of Defense as soon as the first hiccups with Boeing over the Chinook came about. Glad to see it came to fruition.
This news is actually hard to believe, very hard to believe.
The V-22 has superior range and speed compared to the CH-47, but the load capacity is around 1000 kg less, and its incredible expensive.
Only rich countries with a huge defence budget can allow themselves to order the V-22, like the US and Japan. And even Japan has ordered just 5.
$ 2.000.000.000 for just 8 V-22s, really an astronomical amou t of money for a country like Indonesia. Oke, Indonesia is not an average piss-poor Third World Country, but this will be the largest defence acquisition in history of Indonesia, as far as i know. Does Indonesia really urgently need the V-22? And just only the V-22 and not the CH-47F?
$2.000.000.000 is in my opinion also too much for just 8 helicopters, even if its including training, spareparts, GSE, $250.000.000 for each is way too mucb.
For example the Netherlands signed a contract for 12 CH-47Fs which was worth USD308 million. With an approximate unit price of USD25,7 million this is of course excluding support and other ancillary items, and with a complete package it will be maybe twice the piece price, USD51,3 million?
And India, in 2015 India signed a nearly USD 3 billion (around Rs 198 crore) deal for the purchase of 22 Apaches and 15 Chinooks.
The last years many defence contracts are canceled or on hold because of budgetary reasons, after many years of negotiations and struggle, while all of them has a value below the $1,2 billion. And now suddenly our government want this?
For $1,2 billion you can get 16 F-16V Block 70. For $2 billion around 24 Su-35 or maybe even for $2,2 billion six Iver Huitfeldt class frigates, completely armed!
Im sorry, but in my opinion its a waste of our limited budget.
Well, like always, we just wait and enjoy the next defence acquisition saga.