Australian Helicopter Competition Heats Up

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=aerospacedaily&id=news/asd/2010/05/21/03.xml

Only a month into the Australian government's competition for new maritime helicopters and still a year away from a contract award, an interesting twist has been introduced into the battle between the Sikorsky/Lockheed Martin MH-60R and the Eurocopter NH-90.

According to reports in the Australian press, the Australian government hid for 28 days the fact that it had to ground its first Eurocopter NH-90s after an aircraft suffered a catastrophic engine failure and had to limp back to base on a single engine.