Details of costly blowouts and delays on troubled military projects are being kept hidden from public view by the Defence department.

Key points: The Defence Department is concerned about the roll out of the $3.5 billion MRH90 helicopters

The Defence Department is concerned about the roll out of the $3.5 billion MRH90 helicopters The Deployable Defence Air Traffic Management and Control System is also an official "project of concern"

The Deployable Defence Air Traffic Management and Control System is also an official "project of concern" Experts say the Defence Department is growing more secretive and less transparent

For over a decade, Defence has maintained a "projects of concern" list to help remediate its worst-performing military acquisitions, but visibility and transparency of the regime has gradually reduced over time.

Using Freedom of Information, the ABC obtained a recent Quarterly Performance Report from the Department's Capability and Sustainment Group, although much of the detail has been redacted on "national security" grounds.

The protected 86-page document marked "sensitive" confirms two major projects remain on the concern list, namely the ADF's MRH90 helicopters and the Deployable Defence Air Traffic Management and Control System.

Australia is spending $3.5 billion on 47 new MRH90s — a multi-role helicopter that will eventually replace the ageing Sea King and Black Hawk fleets.

Defence sources acknowledged the MRH90's capability and sustainment has improved, but the fleet is currently limited on certain missions because it cannot shut down its main engines due to problems with the auxiliary power unit on board.

The second project of concern, the Deployable Defence Air Traffic Management and Control System, is being purchased for use in possible conflict zones to prevent accidents between aircraft.

A further 14 purchases are identified on a less critical "projects of interest" list, including amphibious ships, new air combat capability and light protected mobility vehicles.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior fellow Andrew Davies said while Defence generally appeared to have the cost of projects under control, the department was struggling to deliver capabilities on schedule.

The military procurement expert also believed the Defence department was being unnecessarily secretive about its problems.

"Defence has been getting more and more secretive, or less transparent, year by year for the last decade or so," Dr Davies said.

"The redactions in the report are on the grounds of national security, and that might be fair enough for some of the capability issues they're facing — you don't want to flag to an adversary that you're having trouble getting your equipment to do such and such a task.

"But things like project schedule and budgets ... it's very hard to see how they're really of any national security importance."

Earlier this year the Australian National Audit Office also delivered a scathing assessment of Defence's growing levels of secrecy over problems with major projects.

"Over the last five years, transparency has reduced, the level of formality has declined with explicit criteria replaced by unpublished principles, and processes have become less rigorous with a greater emphasis on maintaining relationships with industry," the ANAO wrote in March.

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