From today's Herald
By JOHN WARD The Canadian Press
ADVERTISEMENT
OTTAWA — The military will cannibalize five Sea King helicopters and turn them from sub-hunters into troop carriers as part of a new quick-reaction force.
They will lose their anti-submarine gear and get seating to carry 12 soldiers.
The helicopters will be part of a fledgling, Halifax-based, standing contingency task force, a mix of planes, ships and soldiers designed to respond quickly to crises. Creation of the force was announced last year in the defence policy statement.
These Sea Kings are B models, equipped to drop sonobuoys, floating sensors designed to listen for submarines underwater. Most navy ships that carry Sea Kings use the A model, which includes active sonar gear that sends out the pings familiar from many war movies, to find subs.
The contingency task force needed helicopters to be able to ferry soldiers from ship to shore. With nothing else in the inventory to fill the bill, it was decided to convert the Sea Kings.
"We need . . . to have the proper air connectors to be able to take a force from ship to shore and that requires the kind of lift capability that a modified Sea King could provide," said Lt.-Col. Danny Houde, of the directorate of air strategic planning.
The conversion project is straightforward, said Maj. Max Shaw, weapons system manager for the Sea Kings.
"The first part is take the passive acoustics systems out," he said. "Then the other two main elements are adding additional troop seats and adding radios that are compatible with talking to the soldiers."
The $5.5-million project will also eventually install engine filters to improve the chopper’s performance in dusty conditions.
The Sea Kings, most of which are more than 40 years old, have been used as cargo carriers and makeshift people movers in the past. In Somalia in 1992-93, Sea Kings moved 430 tonnes of cargo ashore to support the Canadian Airborne Regiment.
The newly modified troop carriers will keep their navigation and radar systems, as well as the protective gear installed when the navy began deployments to the perilous Persian Gulf area four years ago. These include infrared jamming systems, a missile warning system and chaff dispensers.
Shaw said the Sea King is used as a troop carrier by other countries, so the modifications aren’t radical.
"There’s lots of precedents," he said. "The Royal Navy has provided support for the Royal Marines in many operational sectors over the years and they are quite happy with it in this role."
The changes should be done by November, when the newborn contingency force will stage its first exercise.
Houde said the idea of the force is to provide a permanent force of ships, aircraft and soldiers who work, train and deploy together. It would replace the kind of one-off arrangements in which ships, planes and troops are thrown together for a single mission, "then when the mission is over they go back to their holes and don’t necessarily work together again."
The force is being assembled slowly. Eventually, it’s expected to include several warships, including a yet-to-be purchased amphibious ship, plus helicopters and other aircraft and a force of several hundred troops.
The Sea Kings are a stop-gap that will help get the program started. Eventually, some other helicopter will be tabbed for the troop-carrier role. It might be a specialized aircraft or a variant of the new Sikorsky Cyclone helicopters that are to start replacing the Sea Kings in 2008.
"The final choice in terms of the lift capability has not been finalized," Houde said. "We are continuing to develop the options, but of course the Cyclone is one of the options being considered."
If I were one to talk out of the only orifice located on the back of my body, I might suggest that Shannon Park will be the new home for the "troops"
