CASR

Canadian
American
Strategic
Review

FWSAR  ACAN  –  CC-115  Buffalo  –  Utility  Transport  Aircraft  –  December  2008 Under Fiscal Constraints, DND is wisely Focusing on Core Tasks: Now Give Billions to Italy  or  stimulate the Canadian Aerospace Industry? For  Fixed-Wing  Search-and-Rescue  ( FWSAR )  and  Utility  Transport  –  Buy  Canadian! Our  Minister  of  National  Defence,  Peter MacKay, announced  a Christmas surprise for the Italian aerospace industry.  Instead of  the  competitive  process  promised  by his Assistant  Deputy Minister  (Materiel), Dan Ross, Mr. MacKay prefers to give the FWSAR order to Italy directly through an $3B  Advance Contract Award Notice  for 17 C-27J Spartans built by Alenia in Turin (or under licence in the US ). Very nice for Italy but didn't  the  Harper Conservatives promise Canadian  economic stimulation? In the past, Canadian aerospace could  do better than wait for industrial 'off-sets' and other hand-outs.  Canada built the original  FWSAR aircraft,  the  Buffalo  –  and we can again. The current holder to production rights for the DHC-5 Buffalo (known as the CC-115 in military service) is Canadian-owned Viking Air Ltd. with facilities in  Sidney, BC, and  Calgary, Alberta. In an open letter, the CEO of  Viking Air, David Curtis, has announced his firm's willingness to restart production of an improved, modernized version of the Buffalo. Wouldn't  that stimulate the Canadian economy better than any number of unrelated Italian industrial off-set contracts? Economic stimulation aside,  how would restarting production of a Canadian-designed aircraft be of  benefit?  The military would realize two main advantages. First, with the new-production Buffalo in the works, it makes more sense to invest in major upgrades and modifications to the existing CC-115 fleet. Thus, that fleet is modernized before being traded in for 'new-build' Buffs. (The alternative is to patch up the CC-115s until their replacement with a totally different type.) Second, aircrews and maintenance personnel training on upgraded CC-115s would,effectively, be preparing themselves for new-build aircraft. The same commonality benefit applies to parts. In other words, Viking's concept involves a manageable, affordable transition not a revolution. How could the production of new Buffalos work? Viking is currently working with the Calgary outlet of  Field Aviation to undertake the "Buffalo Avionics Life Extension – Lite". Obviously, it would make sense to establish a Viking/Field Buffalo refurbishment  centre close  to Calgary. Keeping the Canadian Forces aircraft flying would be the priority in a Government contract [1] but this remanufacturing facility can be the basis for the new-production Buffalo plant as well. Mr. Curtis describes his planned new-production Buffalo as "further diversifying the Western Aerospace Industry". So it would. But more than that, the modest aerospace sector in Calgary could be transformed from a healthy service industry into a sophisticated manufacturing base. The benefits of  building transport aircraft in Canada (again) would go beyond one secondary military task. This industry and its attendant  infrastructure would prove a more sophisticated, long-term  stimulus  to the Canadian  economy  than even  the most optimistic, "shovel-ready" plans being put forward by Barack Obama and  the Democratic Congress of  the United States. [1] Although we are focused on replacing the CC-115 here, there is also export potential for the re-manufactured Buffalos.  Further, there are foreign sources of airframes –  earlier,  DND tried to negotiate the purchase of  ex-Brazilian military Buffalos  (survivors of  FAB's 12  DHC-5As).