But when it became clear the choppers would not arrive on time, the Forces had to spend more money to reverse the HMCS Regina retrofit so it could once again handle Sea Kings.
A Defence Department spokesman estimated the cost of the retrofits to be about $600,000 per ship. The Canadian Forces could not confirm that number by deadline Tuesday or provide the cost of reversing the Regina refit.
With work to return its flight deck and hangar to original specifications completed, the Regina was deployed Tuesday to the Arabian Sea as part of Operation Artemis, a Combined Maritime Forces counter-terrorism mission.
What on earth requires $600,000 to change the deck and hangar to support a different type? I assume for that price it's more than just repainting the H in a different position.
As an aside, I toured HMCS Regina when she came to Saigon a few years ago. I did ask a rather pointed question while standing in the empty hangar "Where's your Sea King?"
and I got a rather defensive answer "We don't always deploy with them."