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For a more in depth historical perspective of why I'm concerned about maritime air staffing in Canada, please see my post in the CH-124 Historical thread (as it doesn't belong here).

Written as an adjunct to my post on the Continental Defnce Corvette thread. When the Sea King was bought, and the DDEs converted to DDHs to carry it, the RCN had a full air staff, headed by an Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff (Air) [ACNS(Air)]. Within that staff they not only had reachback to...

I’m very aware of how much it would cost. I’m also not arguing for it per se, I’m expressing a concern that the decisions being made may not be fully informed. By that, I mean the RCN can’t see the future and doesn’t have the resources to fully staff the ramifications of its decisions. This is...

Well, here's an interesting find from the archives:

I've attached an article for late 1963 on the General Purpose Frigate. It was for what followed the St Laurant and Restigouche classes, for an improved version that would carry an air defence system, be larger, and only have room for a smaller helo. It was originally annoucned in the House in...

Should we have Attack Helicopters... probably. Does it have anything to do with embarked aviation... nope. AH is the wrong tool for the job, even armed recce. The days of flying around the ocean looking for ships visually are long gone. Maritime armed recce should be done with a light MH, such...

Like I, and SKT, said, the issue isn’t just the crane, it’s a symptom. None of the work to make the Cyclone supportable on the Halifax class was done for AOPS.

Ok, I’m confused. It’s got nothing to do with Quebec. The Cobra refers only to the AH-1 derivatives, now named Viper. Given we have no “Marines” to support, we would want the UH-1 derogates, ie the Twin Huey now names Venom.

I was going to say that but didn’t want to make anybody angry. The institutional problems will not be fixed by swapping the airframe. I’m not convinced the institution even has the capacity to swap the airframe. But, we’ve been around and around this buoy on this forum, so carry on… Edited to...

It’s not as big a deal for support as some make lead you to believe, but it’s because: to change an engine you need more specific ground support equipment, that doesn’t necessarily fit in the hangar. The easiest way to deal with it was to fit a crane. there is a very heavy, and expensive...

The UH-1Y (Venom) is not a Cobra or derived from a Cobra, it is the latest Twin Huey.

A Cobra (actually a Viper, as only the AH-1Z is still in production) has no ability to operate off a small deck; its purpose is to support Marines from amphib decks. I’m not sure how that meets any of Canada’s needs. A Lynx or UH-1Y Venom would make a lot more sense then that.

Another interesting tidbit I didn't know: It's HMCS Ottawa in Oct-Nov '57, with the temporary flight deck that was originally on St. Laurant. That's a borrowed S-58 (H-34) from the RCAF. At the time, the S-58 (HSS-1, known as the Wessex in the RN) was the favoured candidate to replace the...

Any slung load not below the center of gravity, both laterally and fore and aft, is an issue... You can see that the aircraft rolls left and pitches down as the load comes on. That would be nearly impossible to compensate for.

A Facebook rebuttal to an article that cannot be posted here. It seems to do a good job explaining why our Type-26s have AEGIS and not CMS-330. Royal Canadian Navy Today and Yesterdays Post, 05 Dec 2025

Yeah... and remember, these types of presentations are normally put together with a good understanding customers wants and needs. We does ask the question "what was the RCN thinking?" The hint may come from "Minesweeping and Tow Missions." From the article on Wikipedia about the Bay Class...

I went down this rabbit hole because I was trying to relocated the early '60s requirement for the Sea King. As always, when you open up an archival banker's box or two you see distractions. In this case, it was trhe story of how the decision to acquire the Sea King came about. Luckily, when I...

I've never tried on here, let's see if it accepts it. I scanned it yesterday and rotated and cropped it last night. I was talking to the curator this morning about where the original might be to get a color scan. As was stated by FSTO, given this is a 1961 drawing, it's pretty close to what the...

A couple of cool images I found doing that research. The cover of the Sikorsky Proposal for the HSS-2 to the RCN in 1961: The proposal itself is interesting as well. And, on the back of the same document:

I was researching the original requirement for the Sea King (we have a copy in the archive, but I forget exactly where), and I came across a little tidbit which is intersting in the current context. The original plan for a helicopter to follow on from the H-04S was the HU2K, what would become...