While the cause of the helicopter crash now believed to have taken the lives of a four-man army flight crew is not yet known, the tragedy, which occurred during Operation Talisman Sabre, has reignited debate over the machine they were operating.
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Captain Daniel Lyon, Lieutenant Maxwell Nugent, Warrant Officer Class Two Joseph Laycock and Corporal Alexander Naggs were aboard an MRH-90 - also known as a Taipan - which crashed in the Whitsundays on Friday.
While some of the debris has been retrieved no sign of the men has been found. This has led searchers to believe they may still be in the, as yet, unrecovered fuselage.
The sad decision was taken on Monday morning to call off the search and rescue operation which had been running around the clock in favour of a "recovery" mission.
The loss of these four highly skilled and professional men who, given they operate with the Special Operations Group, are regarded as part of an elite force, has left their families and friends shocked and in mourning and has rocked the Defence community.
It is the ADF's worst peacetime tragedy since 18 men were killed when two Black Hawks collided mid-air near Townsville in 1996.
It is of interest to note the MRH-90 was the replacement for the iteration of the Black Hawk involved in that tragedy, which was put down to human error.
It is also of interest that because of the many and varied issues that plagued the procurement of the MRH-90s the Army had no choice but to extend the operational life of 20 of the Black Hawks out to 2021.
On the same day the last Black Hawks were retired Defence announced the Army's MRH-90s would be retired early and replaced with new UH-60M Black Hawks.
The Navy had already mothballed its MRH-90s in 2022. They are to be replaced by the MH-60R Seahawk, a kissing cousin of the Black Hawk developed for marine use.
While the litany of woe that is the MRH-90 saga is far too long to be detailed here, it is suffice it to say this costly and often unusable "capability" represents one of the most significant defence procurement bungles of recent times.
The first of multiple groundings occurred in 2010 after one of the helicopters suffered engine failure.
The most recent, in March this year, was ordered after another ditched in Jervis Bay with 10 people aboard because of a malfunction during a training exercise.
The MRH-90 did not achieve final operating capability until April 2019 - almost five years behind schedule - and has never performed to expectations.
While, as previously stated, the cause of Friday's deadly crash is as yet unknown, the tragedy should prompt those at Russell to answer three very pertinent questions.
The first of these is why were these lemons bought in the first place? The second is why were they still flying given the crash in March and Navy's decision to mothball them in 2022?
The third, and most important, is how long does it take to buy some Black Hawks?
If investigators do find that the deaths of four Army aircrew was due to a malfunction there is a compelling argument to withdraw the Taipan from service immediately - even though that would create a capability gap.
The Black Hawks must come in ahead of schedule and, preferably, close to budget.
Unfortunately, if past performance is an indicator of future outcomes, it seems doubtful those in charge of the procurement will be able to accomplish that.
We ask our soldiers, sailors and aircrew to put themselves in harm's way all the time. The very least the government and Defence can do is to give them decent equipment.
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