Full operating capability (FOC) for the Royal Australian Navy's (RAN's) 24 new MH-60R naval combat helicopters will not be achieved until about six years after the formation of the first operational squadron in Australia in early 2015, programme director Captain Scott Lockey said on 9 October. All 24 MH-60Rs will be in-country by 2017. Capt Lockey told a briefing at Pacific 2013 that FOC was linked to the successful modification for MH-60R operations of all three of the RAN's Hobart-class Air Warfare Destroyers (AWDs). This was originally scheduled for December 2023, but Capt Lockey said it is now likely to occur three years earlier.
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