Latest commentary on the subject from the Canadian fifth estate:
Chopper announcement disgraceful
January 6, 2014 - 8:56pm MARILLA STEPHENSON
Halifax Chronicle Herald
The Canadian government, completely bereft of the courage to cancel its bungled $5-billion Maritime Helicopter Program with Sikorsky, pulled a Friday Night Special last week.
The mission? Ensure minimal media coverage of the most embarrassing large-scale procurement contract in the government’s history. Notice of the new agreement was sent late Friday at closing time for federal offices. There was no technical briefing, no additional information.
Defence contractors and governments play a high-priced game with these massive taxpayer-funded contracts. Given the stakes and the three-decade history of Canada’s helicopter procurement project, Friday’s news release needed a certain amount of magic.
First, there was the unprecedented grovelling on the part of Sikorsky.
“We recognize that we and our subcontractors must do better,” said Sikorsky president Mick Maurer. “We have completely restructured our approach and added considerable new resources and technical expertise.”
There is little doubt Sikorsky, which built the Sea Kings, can produce excellent helicopters. The gap in the Cyclone contract seems to stem from the fact the Cyclone is being adapted from a commercial aircraft never before used for heavy-duty military use.
A federal auditor general report has previously criticized government officials for describing the contract as an “off the shelf” purchase when, in reality, it was anything but.
Myriad technical problems, some of which I outlined in a Dec. 17 column, have rendered the four developmental Cyclones at 12 Wing Shearwater unfit for Canada’s warships.
The agreement announced Friday is basically a deal to negotiate a new contract for the Cyclone. The aircraft were to have been delivered in 2008 and are now 10 years behind schedule.
The release, raising more questions than it answers, says the government will use helicopters “with operational capability sufficient to begin retirement of Sea Kings in 2015,” with compliant Cyclones first being delivered in 2018.
In short, Sikorsky has been handed 10 extra years to deliver compliant helicopters. There is no information on what helicopter capabilities the Canadian military will have to do without from 2015-18.
Meanwhile, Diane Finley, the minister of public works and government services, says no payments will be made until the compliant helicopters are delivered, and “Sikorsky has committed to deliver the needed helicopter capability at no additional cost to Canada.”
This statement is laughable. Canadian taxpayers have already paid untold millions of dollars — and will pay millions more — to deal with costs related to this project. The navy already paid to modify three Halifax-class frigates to carry the Cyclone, then paid to revert two of them back to Sea King specifications.
They are paying to keep the Sea Kings in the air, and will continue to pay for what is actually a developmental military helicopter, with all of the hiccups and technical glitches and adjustments that come when a country is the first to purchase complicated military hardware.
As for the $88.6 million in penalties the company is to pay, it will be traded for free future maintenance costs, a small portion of a huge maintenance component of the overall contract.
For decades, Canada’s military boasted a sterling reputation as the best submarine hunters in the world, with the Sea Kings increasing the range and protection for our warships.
The bulk of the fleet, based at CFB Halifax, was reinforced with helicopter air detachments from what was then CFB Shearwater. They left Halifax Harbour to undertake missions around the globe, with elite operational levels that were the envy of their allies.
It was Canada that developed what became known as the bear trap haul-down system that enabled a Sea King, attached by a cable to the deck of a destroyer, to land safely in the most challenging North Atlantic weather conditions, even in the black of night.
The Cold War, which included a huge increase in the Russian submarine fleet, has long been over. The operational role of the rugged Sea King, after 50 years of service, continues. But even with upgrades and modernization to the helicopter, advancing technologies have reduced Canada’s sub-hunting status. The days of being No. 1 are long gone, existing only in the nostalgic memories of misty-eyed naval air veterans.
Guided missiles are the more recent weapon of choice, but enemy submarines remain the largest hidden threat to Canada’s warships, even as this country invests $25 billion to upgrade its surface fleet. Meanwhile, the project to replace the Sea Kings has been woefully mismanaged, with political egos and partisan one-upmanship trumping the military’s operational needs.
The 12 Halifax-class frigates, which were developed to be paired with new maritime helicopters, first put to sea in 1992.
The first of the navy’s new warships announced in 2011, intended to replace both the old Iroquois-class destroyers and eventually the frigates, may well arrive at the jetties of CFB Halifax before the military manages to obtain a helicopter capable of flying from the decks of our superb surface fleet.
It’s a disgrace.