Search-and-rescue aircraft training facility coming to Comox
The national training facility for Canada’s next generation of fixed-wing search-andrescue aircraft will be located in Comox, the commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force said this week.
Bids from three groups are currently being evaluated for an estimated $3-billion contract to replace the country’s aging fleets of six CC-115 Buffalo and 12 early model CC-130 Hercules search-and-rescue aircraft, Lt.-Gen. Mike Hood said.
The training facility at the Comox airforce base would include flight simulators to help pilots train on whichever new aircraft is selected by the federal government. That decision is expected before the end of the year, the general said.
A new maintenance program would also be established at the base.
The new aircraft would begin to arrive in 2019, said Hood, with the full fleet coming into service over three years and deployed to Canada’s four search-andrescue bases at Comox, Winnipeg, Trenton, Ont., and Greenwood, N.S.
Hood said three aircraft are being considered by non-military evaluators, who will make recommendations to the defence minister and cabinet: • The Italian-built Leonardo C-27 turboprop aircraft that is part of a joint venture led by General Dynamics Canada and DRS Technologies Canada; • The C295 turboprop military transport manufactured by Europe-based Airbus; and • The KC-390, a jet-powered military transport built by Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer.
Hood, a former Hercules pilot, noted the spinoff economic benefits to Comox of the new training facility and the additional personnel that will based there.
The groups behind the C-27 and C-295 bids had previously said they were considering putting their training facilities at Comox.
“For us, it makes perfect sense to have the training centre located in Comox,” Pablo Molina, head-of-country for Airbus in Canada, told the Vancouver Sun in June. “It is the logical place for training.”
Comox’s proximity to the ocean and mountainous terrain offer search-andrescue crews the opportunity to train in conditions they would face in routine SAR missions.
Comox Mayor Paul Ives welcomed the news.
“That’s good to hear,” he said. “From what we’re told it would be a large building. Then there would be 30 high-paying jobs with the simulators. That will mean a lot to the community, more paycheques going into the community.”
Hood also said that Canada’s geriatric fleet of CH-124 Sea King helicopters, including the six in the 443 Maritime Helicopter Squadron based at Patricia Bay, will have their last flights in December 2018. They’re being replaced by Sikorsky CH-148 Cyclone helicopters, which can cruise at 250 km/h — 10 per cent faster than the Sea Kings — and can fly 450 kilometres without refuelling.
There have been long delays and millions of dollars in cost overruns in getting the Cyclone program up and running, with former defence minister Peter MacKay once calling it the “worst” procurement in Canadian history. Just 12 of 28 Cyclones, first ordered in 2004, will be in service by 2018, with the full fleet not expected to be operational until at least 2025, according to military timelines released to the CBC last month.