Sale Of Dauphins Defended

Steyr

Sale of 'low price' Air Corps helicopters defended


CONOR LALLY

THE DEPARTMENT of Defence has defended the sale of four Air Corps helicopters for €360,000 following a media report which revealed the company that bought them sold them for €18.7 million.

Last night the department said it would be "disingenuous" to suggest that the low sale price had cost the State €18 million. It said at the time of the sale, in October 2006, the Dauphin helicopters would have needed a major refit at a cost of between €3 million and €3.5 million per aircraft.

A defence source said officials decided against the refit, in favour of selling the aircraft and buying more modern helicopters which better suited the Air Corps's needs.

The department's statement said: "The aircraft were publicly advertised for sale and four tenders were received. The aircraft were subsequently sold to the highest bidder for approximately €360,000."

The department confirmed the aircraft were bought by US firm Rotor Leasing Ltd. It confirmed a report in the Sunday Tribune yesterday that the helicopters were then refitted by the company and sold on to the Chilean Navy.

"In that context it is perfectly reasonable to expect that the market value of the aircraft would have increased in line with the cost of the refurbishment work," the department's statement said.

"The extent of refurbishment undertaken and any additional contract terms such as supply of parts or servicing would also have an important bearing on the contract value." The department could not confirm the €18.7 million value of the helicopters when they were sold on to the Chileans.

According to departmental figures quoted by the Sunday Tribune the four helicopters were sold for €77,750 each and sold on for over €4.6 million each.

The helicopters were acquired in 1986 and were mainly used for search and rescue operations. Their then state-of-the-art technology allowed them assist the Naval Service in operations at sea by night.

Three of the fleet of five were based on in Baldonnel and two on the LE Eithne .

© 2008 The Irish Times


http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ire ... 18676.html

dogmatix

I was listening to this article on morning ireland this am and to be honest the whole story sounds a bit overblown. The helicopters where over 20 years old and the company that bought them and then sold them on to the Chilean navy spent millions refurbishing them to the required spec for the Chileans. The head guy for this company did admit to making "approx 100% profit" on the deal but would the department of defence have been able to cut out the middleman undertake the work on the Dauphins for the Chileans?

Scruff

i presume it was 100% profit on the €360k he spent buying them. I dont doubt that if some contractor was brought in to refurbish them for the Dept of Defense before selling them they would have been sold at a loss. Think we should be happy with getting anything for them :rolleyes:

Run_to_da_hills

Scruff wrote: »

i presume it was 100% profit on the €360k he spent buying them. I dont doubt that if some contractor was brought in to refurbish them for the Dept of Defense before selling them they would have been sold at a loss. Think we should be happy with getting anything for them :rolleyes:

They were put up for tender what do they expect, it wasn't as if they were sold cheaply through some underhand deal. :rolleyes:

FiSe

They're nice helis, but not too much of use for the IAC tasks, but that's another story :rolleyes:

diverdriver

The article tells it all really.

the Dauphin helicopters would have needed a major refit at a cost of between €3 million and €3.5 million per aircraft.

That's €12 to €14 million.

The buyer sold them on for

€18.7 million value of the helicopters when they were sold on to the Chileans.

€4.6 million each

So €18.7 minus €14 million equals €6.7 million. How much of that is profit for the vendor is anybody's guess. He says he doubled his investment and that's fair enough. He took the risks. He could very easily have been left with four old helis nobody wants.

It's just like restoring old cars. Buy em cheap, do em up and sell them on.

It's a non story invented by some ignorant journalist trying to make a name for him or herself.

Steyr

We should have kept them, stripped them down to bare essentials and used them for troop transport.

Run_to_da_hills

Steyr wrote: »

We should have kept them, stripped them down to bare essentials and used them for troop transport.

Could also have been used for the rapid deployment of the Gardai. :eek:

BrianD

Rotor Leasing Ltd refurbished them and then sold them to Eurocopter who added mission specific equipment for the Chilian navy.

I don't doubt that there was considerable value added to 4 scrapped aircraft along the way. What I could never understand is that the Air Corp kept their Allouettes in service for 40 years but the Dauphins left service relatively rapidly. This aircraft is in service in quite a few countries how come we couldn't keep ours on the go. If the Chilians were happy to seek out and buy four 20 year old aircraft (albeit now in tip top condition) surely there could have been more done to keep these in service?

two of the Dauphin fleet were for use on the Eithne. Is there any plans to reintroduce helicopters to the Naval Service and what helios can operate from this vessel?

Steyr

BrianD wrote: »

I don't doubt that there was considerable value added to 4 scrapped aircraft along the way. What I could never understand is that the Air Corp kept their Allouettes in service for 40 years but the Dauphins left service relatively rapidly. This aircraft is in service in quite a few countries how come we couldn't keep ours on the go.

Because ours were a "one off" with different equipment to every other Dauphin. Basically specifically made for us.

BrianD wrote: »

two of the Dauphin fleet were for use on the Eithne. Is there any plans to reintroduce helicopters to the Naval Service and what helios can operate from this vessel?

I dont think so on Eithne, her Frigate days are long gone i reckon. The next time you see Helo's on INS ships is probably if or when we get the MRV but in the present climate i reckon we can kiss that goodbye.

television

is anyone else aware that of the 5 of them only 2 had rescue winches as delivered, according to the book "wings over ireland" by donal macaron.im sure the winches could have been swapped from 1 to another should the need arise but just does not make sense that only 2 would be equipped for sar at any one time [unless the other 3 were later retrofitted with them]...so much for the dauphin replacing the allouette on sar

Stovepipe

Hi there
With regard to the winch set-up, all of the Dauphins were permanently fitted with the electrical sockets and mounting brackets for the winches, so that the unit itself could be fitted to any of them.There were always two in service and they were routinely swapped on and off, for example when a Dauphin was refitted for VIP or was being stood down for maintenance, the unit came off and either went directly onto another aircraft or was put on it's dedicated stand until it was needed. Winches also required cable changes after a comparatively short time in service, which was related to the number of lifts and not aircraft hours and which is still the case on all winches.

regards
Stovepipe