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Internal report blasts Sea King's performance
Canadian Press
OTTAWA â †The troublesome Sea King helicopter has apparently hit a new low.
In a high-seas operation earlier this year, the chopper aboard HMCS Ville de Quebec was available only about one day in every five because of frequent malfunctions. It's believed to be the worst-ever performance aboard a ship.
"As a result of exceptionally poor serviceability, in the region of 20 per cent . . . few training opportunities were completed,'' says an internal report obtained under the Access to Information Act.
"Aircraft serviceability and availability issues had a severe impact upon the aviation aspects of the . . . program.''
The Sea King problems occurred during an annual exercise to test the navy's combat readiness. The three-ship deployment ran from Jan. 31 to March 11 off the U.S. east coast and in the Caribbean.
Things got off to a bad start when the first Sea King assigned to HMCS Ville de Quebec broke down just before it was to be flown aboard the frigate in Halifax.
A second working Sea King soon arrived but the chopper had to be turned over to the lead ship, HMCS Halifax, because Halifax's own Sea King broke down.
The malfunctioning Sea King from HMCS Halifax was repaired and given to HMCS Ville de Quebec, but the aircraft was plagued by glitches throughout the deployment.
Despite an "astounding amount of engineering work carried out'' at sea, the chopper was unavailable most of the time. Mechanical problems were so severe that shore-based repairs had to be performed at Norfolk, Va., and Mayport, Fla.
On March 1, while docked at Freeport, Grand Bahama, HMCS Ville de Quebec swapped its cranky Sea King for HMCS Halifax's functioning aircraft to try to squeeze in some training -- but the newly acquired aircraft promptly broke down.
The military had to send one helicopter pilot back to Halifax early since there were virtually no training opportunities.
Asked whether he had ever seen such a poor performance in a Sea King, the man in charge of all Sea King maintenance said: "I can't say that I have."
Lt.-Col. Bruce Ploughman, commanding officer of 423 Squadron, said repair crews "had to deal with issues that I, quite frankly, have never encountered in my time at sea.
"It was a phenomenal effort on their part to rectify some of the snags they did have.''
Ploughman acknowledged that the entire Sea King fleet, purchased in the 1960s and based on 1950s-era technology, has an average availability rate of only 40 per cent.
But the problems encountered by HMCS Ville de Quebec had more to do with bad luck than bad aircraft, he said.
The aircraft that HMCS Halifax finally sailed with was much more reliable, Ploughman said, available more than 80 per cent of the time. And HMCS Montreal, which is on a six-month overseas training operation that ends in July, has found its Sea King also to be available more than 80 per cent of the time.
That contrasts sharply with Montreal's previous mission, last summer's Operation Narwhal, the largest joint military exercise Canada has ever undertaken in the Arctic.
Montreal's Sea King "was a problem aircraft from the first day it landed on the flight deck,'' an internal military report said.
"It is unusual to have had so many different types of snags, i.e., fuel, blades, pumps, heater, engine, gyro system, and flight controls in such a short period.''
Numerous other overseas missions have struggled to keep the Sea Kings flying, with frequent cancellations of sorties.
The Liberal government is buying 28 Cyclones to replace the Sea King fleet, but the first aircraft won't be delivered until late 2008 and operations won't begin for another year. The last Sea King is expected to retire in 2011.
In 1993, the newly elected Liberal government of Jean Chretien cancelled an order that would have replaced the Sea Kings by 2000, saying it was too expensive.
Internal report blasts Sea King's performance
Canadian Press
OTTAWA â †The troublesome Sea King helicopter has apparently hit a new low.
In a high-seas operation earlier this year, the chopper aboard HMCS Ville de Quebec was available only about one day in every five because of frequent malfunctions. It's believed to be the worst-ever performance aboard a ship.
"As a result of exceptionally poor serviceability, in the region of 20 per cent . . . few training opportunities were completed,'' says an internal report obtained under the Access to Information Act.
"Aircraft serviceability and availability issues had a severe impact upon the aviation aspects of the . . . program.''
The Sea King problems occurred during an annual exercise to test the navy's combat readiness. The three-ship deployment ran from Jan. 31 to March 11 off the U.S. east coast and in the Caribbean.
Things got off to a bad start when the first Sea King assigned to HMCS Ville de Quebec broke down just before it was to be flown aboard the frigate in Halifax.
A second working Sea King soon arrived but the chopper had to be turned over to the lead ship, HMCS Halifax, because Halifax's own Sea King broke down.
The malfunctioning Sea King from HMCS Halifax was repaired and given to HMCS Ville de Quebec, but the aircraft was plagued by glitches throughout the deployment.
Despite an "astounding amount of engineering work carried out'' at sea, the chopper was unavailable most of the time. Mechanical problems were so severe that shore-based repairs had to be performed at Norfolk, Va., and Mayport, Fla.
On March 1, while docked at Freeport, Grand Bahama, HMCS Ville de Quebec swapped its cranky Sea King for HMCS Halifax's functioning aircraft to try to squeeze in some training -- but the newly acquired aircraft promptly broke down.
The military had to send one helicopter pilot back to Halifax early since there were virtually no training opportunities.
Asked whether he had ever seen such a poor performance in a Sea King, the man in charge of all Sea King maintenance said: "I can't say that I have."
Lt.-Col. Bruce Ploughman, commanding officer of 423 Squadron, said repair crews "had to deal with issues that I, quite frankly, have never encountered in my time at sea.
"It was a phenomenal effort on their part to rectify some of the snags they did have.''
Ploughman acknowledged that the entire Sea King fleet, purchased in the 1960s and based on 1950s-era technology, has an average availability rate of only 40 per cent.
But the problems encountered by HMCS Ville de Quebec had more to do with bad luck than bad aircraft, he said.
The aircraft that HMCS Halifax finally sailed with was much more reliable, Ploughman said, available more than 80 per cent of the time. And HMCS Montreal, which is on a six-month overseas training operation that ends in July, has found its Sea King also to be available more than 80 per cent of the time.
That contrasts sharply with Montreal's previous mission, last summer's Operation Narwhal, the largest joint military exercise Canada has ever undertaken in the Arctic.
Montreal's Sea King "was a problem aircraft from the first day it landed on the flight deck,'' an internal military report said.
"It is unusual to have had so many different types of snags, i.e., fuel, blades, pumps, heater, engine, gyro system, and flight controls in such a short period.''
Numerous other overseas missions have struggled to keep the Sea Kings flying, with frequent cancellations of sorties.
The Liberal government is buying 28 Cyclones to replace the Sea King fleet, but the first aircraft won't be delivered until late 2008 and operations won't begin for another year. The last Sea King is expected to retire in 2011.
In 1993, the newly elected Liberal government of Jean Chretien cancelled an order that would have replaced the Sea Kings by 2000, saying it was too expensive.
