Search-and-rescue training bound for B.C.

Fixed-wing pilots will be taught at new national facility in Comox

The national training facility for Canada’s next generation of fixedwing search-and-rescue aircraft will be located in Comox, the commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force told the editorial board of The Vancouver Sun and The Province.

Bids from three groups are being evaluated for an estimated $3-billion contract to replace the country’s aging fleets of six CC-115 Buffalo and 12 early model CC130 Hercules search-and-rescue aircraft, Lt.- Gen. Mike Hood said Wednesday.

The training facility at the Comox air force 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, Hood said, with the full fleet coming into service over three years and deployed to Canada’s four search-and-rescue bases at Comox, Winnipeg, Trenton, Ont., and Greenwood, N.S.

Hood said non-military evaluators will make recommendations to the defence minister and cabinet about three aircraft under consideration:

The Italian-built Leonardo C-27 turboprop aircraft, part of a joint venture led by General Dynamics Canada and DRS Technologies Canada.

The C295 turboprop military transport manufactured by Europe-based Airbus.

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 be based there.

The groups behind the C-27 and C-295 bids had previously said they were considering putting training facilities at Comox.

“For us, it makes perfect sense to have the training centre located in Comox,” Pablo Molina, head-ofcountry for Airbus in Canada, told The Sun in June. “It is the logical place for training.”

Comox’s proximity to the ocean and mountainous terrain offer search-and-rescue crews the opportunity to train in conditions they would face in routine 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 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 kilometres an hour — 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 in the air, 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 until at least 2025, according to military timelines released to the CBC last month.

There would be 30 high-paying jobs. … That will mean a lot to the community.