Army Kiowas

I'm trying to determine how many KIOWAS may still be in service. I've noted 20 so far in 2015, compared to 24 I noted in 2014.

I believe that there may be a few more still in service and was wonderingi if anyone can help please?

I'm away from home at present and don't have my records available.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Bob

Bob,
Perhaps if you supply the forum the serials of the Kiowa's you have noted, the readers will see if they can add to the currency of what remains in the fleet. Have heard that at least four Blackhawks have passed their use by dates and no doubt Kiowas will be dropping off the perch too.
Kind Regards
Richard Siudak

Hi Richard

That was my intention but I am away from home at present so don't have my records to hand. So I thought that a pre-emptive question may have received an answer from someone whose records are better than mine.

No probs, if I don't get an answe as I will post a list in a few days.

Cheers

bob

Following on from my earlier post, here are the serials of the 20 Kiowas I have noted in service this year :

A17-004, 011, 015, 016, 018, 026, 027, 028, 029, 031, 032, 036, 037, 038, 039,
-040, 047, 049, 051, 054.

And I suspect that there is at least one more which I can't identify.

Cheers

Bob

So it looks like the Kiowas are still operated from the 6th Aviation Regiment located at Luscombe Army Airfield, Holsworthy.

So I assume that although they still maybe ACTIVE and used for live fire training exercises in a armed reconnaissance role for Soldiers based at Holsworthy because our superior Armed Reconnaissance Helos, the Tigers are all based up at Darwin with the 1st Aviation Regiment.

I wonder if the Kiowas will be operated from either of our new LHDs to provide reconnaissance when close to shore for a training troops for an amphibious assault or even used at RIMPAC 16?

Before any helo can operate from an LHD that helo has to be certified by AMAFTU - which has recently been certifying helos such as the Seahawk and MRH-90. Below is an RAN Kiowa at the NAS Nowra Air Day 1980 photo by Steve McDonald. AMAFTU = Aircraft Maintenance and Flying Trials Unit (RAN)

This post has been edited by Luig on Aug 3 2015, 06:03 PM

Attached Image

Superbug, please don't take this thread off on a tangent.

AFAIK, the Kiowas are all based at Oakey in QLD and the few that were at Holsworthy left there towards the end of 2013.

They're in the twilight of their career so I very much doubt they will used in any sort of maritime role.

Yes, they are all currently at Oakey. I do have some photos of the airframes in storage on base, I will dig them out when I get in front of my laptop. This will account for a few birds at least. A lot of them are being used for parts.

Kiowa days are numbered now as the EC-135 has been named as the new joint Army/Navy training airframe for the HATS program.

Chris

This post has been edited by cj0203 on Aug 4 2015, 12:15 PM

Sorry, I realise that you're interested in knowing how many Kiowas we still have in ACTIVE service I was interested to know what will end up happening to all these certain Kiowas and Blackhawks after they are retired? Or are they just sitting up there idly at Oakey Army Aviation Centre unused...

As mentioned on the Kiowa serials page, 14 aircraft were put up for fixed-price disposal to museums from Damascus Barracks in March.
I only seem to have found destinations for two of them.
A17-005
A17-006
A17-007
A17-010 Port Adelaide
A17-012 Caloundra
A17-014
A17-020
A17-033
A17-034
A17-035
A17-045
A17-050
A17-052
A17-055
Any offers anyone?
Andy

They are yet to be publicly announced by Defence. Those who have announced them too early.

Here is where they ended up;
Australian Aviation Heritage Centre Caboolture;
A17-005, -007, -033, -034 and -035
Australian National Aviation Museum Moorabbin;
A17-006, -045 and -055.
Evans Head Memorial Heritage Centre A17-020
HARS Albion Park A17-050 and -052.
Merriden Military Museum A17-014
Queensland Air Museum A17-012.
South Australia Aviation Museum A17-010

Thanks Martin,
Andy

VH-HQR ex A17-036 has recently been registered to Michael Ramon JANSEN here in WA

REDBACK's are back with ARMY using 2 x H-135 with civil rego's for helicopter proficiency and training operating from Bankstown & Holsworthy...

Wish they would just place an order for 12 or so variants and have them in proper ARMY kit, can use them as Littlebirds for SOCOM as I recall they were looking at that role...