Cyclones fail endurance test - Winnipeg Free Press
Cyclones fail endurance test
But colonel sure contract will be met
By: Michael Tutton
19/08/2009 1:00 AM |
Ottawa agreed to pay $5 billion in 2004 for 28 Sikorsky Cyclone helicopters.
HALIFAX -- The Canadian officer who will oversee the first flights of Canada's new fleet of navy helicopters next year says the choppers currently can't pass an endurance test that requires them to fly for nearly three hours in extreme conditions.
"It (the helicopter) falls short of the endurance requirement as allowed under the revised contract," Col. Sam Michaud, commander of Nova Scotia's 12 Wing Shearwater airbase, said.
The MH-92 Cyclone helicopter's original contract had specified that 28 choppers be delivered, at a rate of one per month, beginning in November 2008.
However, a revised contract announced last year allowed for the delivery to begin in November 2010. It also doesn't require the choppers to meet the 170-minute flying time until after the 19th helicopter has been delivered in 2012.
But Michaud said he's confident the Cyclones will satisfy the requirement, and that the aging fleet of Sea King choppers can operate until then.
Still, he agreed there will be some limits -- such as shorter missions and the need to use more helicopters to perform the same mission -- until the endurance requirement is met.
"So right now, the issue with the interim maritime helicopters is they're having some challenges getting to that endurance number that we've asked for," Michaud said.
The base commander explained that the helicopter is heavier than originally expected, and as a result fuel is consumed more quickly.
"That's why the whole weight issue is a big one," Michaud said.
He said that's why the federal government requirement of flying two hours and 50 minutes in conditions where temperatures surpass 35 C won't be met when the first choppers arrive.
Paul Jackson, a spokesman for Sikorsky, confirmed the interim maritime helicopter will be 10 to 20 minutes short of the 170-minute requirement.
But he said the company has little doubt it can achieve the federal government's performance requirements under the revised contract.
"Meeting the final configuration performance as required in the extreme conditions that this customer operates (in) is important," he said in an email. "We do not consider weight as a big issue."
He added that the company will achieve the requirement by decreasing the aircraft's weight and improving the engine's power capabilities and transmission.
Lianne LeBel, a spokeswoman for the Defence Department, said the final helicopter will have "an enhanced version" of the engine as designed in the original Cyclone.
That engine will be designed to lift the 13,185 kilograms the helicopter is expected to weigh by 2012, she said.
The government has said the new engines and other changes will add $117 million to the $5-billion cost.
-- The Canadian Press
The story is all so familiar in Australia. A contractor promising the problems will be resolved, the customer not prepared to admit they made a mistake trying to develop a "new" naval helicopter.
Will it all end in tears or will the the Canadian government continue to lap up Sikorsky's excuses?