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- Canadian Defence Policy, Foreign Policy, & Canada-US Relations -

In Detail —— the Maritime Helicopter Project ——

by ST Priestley

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Canadian Defence Procurement  —  updated and revised January 2004 Politics, Procurement Practices, and Procrastination: the Quarter-Century Sea King Helicopter Replacement Saga Part 2  —  In the Beginning ... the Search for a Sea King Replacement It is not our purpose to simply provide a chronology of the Canadian Forces’ Maritime Helicopter Project –  the begats have already been adequately covered elsewhere. Nor is it our intention to embark upon lengthy technical descriptions of equipment involved.  Instead, the major milestones of the MHP  –  and its predecessors  –  will be examined with an eye on the options present at each point in the decision-making process. The benefits of hindsight makes second-guessing DND planners and ministers of Defence rather unfair.  Still, we can judge decision-makers by how well they dealt with the predictable political realities including the cabinet room competitions, budget contraints and other economic factors, changes in the geo-political situation or general strategic landscape as well as shifts in the mood of the citizenry, and short-term opportunities for procurement of equipment. 1977  —  the Sea King Replacement  (SKR)  Project In the mid-’70s, the Canadian Forces embarked upon a mid-life modernization and rebuild program for its then decade-old  CH-124 Sea King  shipboard helicopters. The key mission for CF Sikorsky Sea Kings was anti-submarine warfare  (ASW) and the opportunity was taken to upgrade all onboard ASW avionics.  At about the same time, DND began to explore options for an eventual replacement for the Sea King. This is common practice (and highly prudent)  but Canada’s navy had an additional incentive. For ASW duties, Sea Kings are flown from the helicopter decks of warships. These helicopters are therefore regarded as an intregal part of the ASW capabilities of those vessels.  At the time, DND was planning to update its fleet with new, specialized submarine-hunters, the Canadian Patrol Frigates. So symbiotic is the relationship between ship and ASW helicopter that the proposed Sea King replacement was simply regarded as a component of this CPF Project. Passing the Buck on Spending the Bucks for a Sea King Replacement Once DND’s new Canadian Patrol Frigate project had begun, it quickly became apparent that the total costs of implemention would be staggering.  By 1978  DND had decided to ‘calve off ’ the Sea King replacement requirement from their larger  CPF project to make the frigates more fiscally palatable. The CPF project, with all of its complicated systems, was also made slightly more manageable by making one integrated system – the ASW helicopter  – a completely separate project. There is also a bit of budgetary sleight-of-hand here. Canadian Forces helicopters are operated by Air Force flight crews regardless of where those aircraft operate from.  So, separating ASW helicopters from the CPF project also had the bonus – at least from the Navy’s point of view – of shifting responsibility for replacing their Sea King ASW helicopters to Air Command. <  Part 1  —  the  MHP  in the Current Political Landscape >  Part 3  —  Air Command Listens to its ‘Power Animal’