Members of the new joint industry and military team at the Airbus Group Australia Pacific facility at Brisbane Airport. (Airbus)

Airbus Group Australia Pacific and the Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) have commissioned a joint helicopter support centre at Brisbane Airport that will be staffed by a mixture of industry and military personnel.

The move is intended as a way of optimising support for the Australian Defence Force (ADF) fleets of ARH Tiger attack helicopters and MRH90 multirole helicopters, Airbus stated.

Civilian and Defence personnel are set to work together at the company’s facility at Brisbane Airport, tasked with providing the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and Australian Army with the engineering, supply support and technical services required to enable the helicopters to operate as needed.

“It will be a truly integrated Defence/industry support environment in which we will all share the common goal of striving to provide outstanding service levels for these helicopters,” said Airbus Group Australia Pacific managing director Dr Jens Goennemann. “We are all in this together to ensure our servicemen and women have the most reliable and safest helicopters available to them.”

The centre was formally commissioned on April 16 at the company’s manufacturing complex at Brisbane Airport. When operating at full strength, it will be staffed by about 250 personnel.