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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 4 — ‘New Shipboard
Aircraft’ Project: CF ASW Helicopters Rebranded
With ASW and navigation avionics contracts in place, DND began to examine its options for a new helicopter type to
replace the Sea King. Production of the Sea King itself was just coming to an end (eliminating
any possibility of a last-minute follow-on order). In any case, DND regarded the existing Sea Kings
as being too small [1] for the amount of new ASW gear that their future helicopter would have to carry. Besides,
by the mid-’80s, DND had new political masters. The Mulroney Tories were regarded as pro-military and had
promised to spend big on defence.
1985 — the New Shipboard Aircraft Project or “Much of Life is Marketing”
Of course, every twist and turn in DND projects requires a name change and new logo designs anyway. And, any
project names as straightforward and descriptive as ‘Sea King Replacement’ must, therefore, be
transmogrified into an ultra-vague monstrosity such as the ‘New Shipboard Aircraft Project’. A name
change would also serve the territorial marking behaviours that accomany all regime changes.
Other NATO navies also needed to replace their Sea King fleets which simplified DND’s selection
process. The new NSA Project proceeded apace – no doubt aided by the fact that the new Chief of Defence
Staff, LtGen Paul Manson [2], was an Air Force officer. In 1986 the NSA entered its project definition
phase – ‘Solicitations of Interest’ from industry were requested in April of 1986 by
Brian Mulroney’s second Minister of National Defence, Erik Nielsen. The NSA seemed to be on its way.
[1] For more on this issue, see the
MHP Sidebar : Obsessing Over
Size?
[2] General Manson served as CDS from 1986 until his retirement in mid-1989. As noted in the media, Manson
joined US defence contractor Unisys in 1990 before becoming president of their Canadian subsidiary Paramax a
year later. In the end, Paramax (now Lockheed Martin Canada) would be a chief contractor in the NSA.
< Part 3 — “Slide!” ... Air
Command Listens to its ‘Power Animal’
> Part 5 — Open for Business: Contenders
for the ‘NSA’ Requirement
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