On Wednesday, 3 December 2025, the Australian public broadcaster ABC reported that the government in Canberra is considering transferring to war-torn Ukraine the 22 EC665 Tiger ARH (Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter) attack and reconnaissance helicopters scheduled for retirement. The government in Kyiv has been interested in them since at least June 2024.
The Australian Tigers are armed with AGM-114 Hellfire anti-tank guided missiles and 70 mm Hydra 70 unguided rockets / Photo: Australian Department of Defence
Australia, although it has supported Ukraine with materiel assistance, including retired heavy military equipment such as the 49 M1A1SA Abrams tanks delivered between July and October 2024, previously declined to transfer NHIndustries MRH-90 Taipan multirole helicopters, and no agreement was ultimately reached regarding the 41 Boeing F/A-18A/B Hornet multirole aircraft, as Kyiv was not genuinely interested in them.
Australia’s Minister for Defence, Richard Marles, said before Parliament last week that the government would very soon announce another package of military assistance for Ukraine, building on the already pledged support amounting to 1.5 billion USD.
“Over the past four years, the Ukrainian people have been absolutely inspiring, and the Albanese government and the Australian nation will support them for as long as necessary,” he said.
ABC sources indicated that if Canberra decides to transfer the Tiger helicopters to Ukraine, the move would be separate from the expected new package.
On 19 June 2024, Ukraine’s Ambassador to Australia, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, announced at a press conference that Ukraine was interested in the helicopters which were being retired.
More recently, on 20 October of this year, the Ukrainian government signed Letters of Intent (LoI) with the U.S. company Bell Textron to evaluate options for industrial cooperation regarding a possible future purchase by Kyiv of AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters and UH-1Y Venom multirole helicopters.
EC665 Tiger ARH
Australia is retiring its European-made helicopters, which will be replaced by 29 American AH-64E Apache Guardians (the first two units were received on 2 October of this year).
On 8 July 2019, the Australian Department of Defence launched the LAND 4503 Phase 1 ARH Replacement Program to procure a successor to the Tiger fleet. The need for replacement had been identified in the 2016 Defence White Paper, after the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) reported as many as 76 technical and operational issues (despite the fact that the helicopters had achieved full operational capability on 16 April of the same year).
Developed by the Eurocopter consortium (now Airbus Helicopters), the EC665 Tiger ARH was selected by the Australian Department of Defence under the AIR 87 Project in 2001. Deliveries were completed ten years later. Full operational capability had originally been planned for June 2009, but was not achieved until seven years later. The first deck operations did not begin until April 2019.
The Tigers also underwent the TLS (Through-Life Support) modification. A contract worth AUD 790 million (PLN 2.083 billion at the time) was awarded on 9 April 2019 to Airbus Australia Pacific.
Interestingly, among the remaining Tiger operators, France, Spain, and Germany, the latter also plans to retire its helicopters and replace them with Airbus H145M light multirole helicopters in the LKH (Leichter Kampfhubschrauber) armed variant. France, on the other hand, does not intend to withdraw them, in fact, it is modernizing its fleet and integrating MAST-F long-range anti-tank missiles. Spain likewise plans to keep its Tigers in service by introducing the Tiger Mk III standard. To date, a total of 178 Tiger helicopters have been delivered to the armed forces of France, Germany, Spain, and Australia.
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