The Army has dispatched two Black Hawk helicopters to assist with flood relief operations in northern New South Wales.
The aircraft, normally based at the Australian Army Aviation Training Center in Oakey, Queensland, departed Wednesday and will operate out of Lismore.
“The Black Hawks are equipped with winching systems and have been fitted with long-range fuel tanks for increased tasking endurance,” Acting Deputy Commander Joint Operations Commodore Michael Noonan said. “If required, the crew also have their full suite of night vision equipment to allow operations into the evening.”
The mission comes just after Army’s Black Hawks were cleared to resume flying following a six day precautionary grounding over fractured bolts discovered during routine maintenance checks. An engineering investigation indicated that the defective bolts were confined to a single manufacturer’s batch and were not a fleet wide issue.
