We know about naval ships, but what about Canada’s naval aviation capacity? What capabilities does Canada have, and what do they do? There are a variety of maritime aviation capabilities, and they undertake numerous operations ranging from search and rescue, to surveillance, to anti-submarine warfare. The capabilities can be classified […]
Canadian Maritime Aviation
It’s hard to imagine a world without air travel, although this year, we’re seeing air travel reduced to its bare bones. It has been more than a century since maritime aviation began off the East Coast of Canada to help address the submarine threat during the First World War. The […]
There may be much uncertainty in the world today but one thing we can count on is that technology will continue to change. And that means that military forces will continue to adapt to and adopt the technology. In the past two decades, a huge variety of unmanned (uncrewed?) aerial […]
On 22 December, Michael Tutton of the Canadian Press filed a report on difficulties experienced with the HELRAS tethered sonar installation on the ‘Block 1’ Cyclone helicopters.[1] Apparently, there is a potential for a ‘trap strike’ between the sonar projector and the C-RAST, which is a new model of the […]
CNR, Vol. 11, No. 1 (2015) Abstract In October 2014, two of the RCAF’s recently modified Block 3 CP-140M Auroras deployed to the Middle East to conduct intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) over Iraq in support of Operation Impact. Within 30 hours of the aircraft arriving in theatre, the crews […]
Residents of Halifax are sighting the Sikorsky H-92 Cylcone in flight over the Shearwater airfield and in the local area. I saw the first one last Saturday, but other residents are reporting that they have been active around the airfield for the last three weeks. The Cyclone has a distinctly […]
Friday’s news carried a couple of stories that speculated on whether or not the Sikorsky H-92 ‘Cyclone’ helicopter deal will be cancelled. CBCNews ran a story, entitled ‘Other options’ sought for Sea King Helicopter replacements, that quoted Public Works spokesperson Amber Irwin as saying, “the government is considering other options […]
Recently, the Halifax Chronicle-Herald has carried four items relating to the CH-124 Sea King and the CH-148 Cyclone. The first was “Sea Kings’ 50th birthday still a point of pride” by Marilla Stephenson (19 July), the next was an editorial, “A question of safety for Sea Kings” (26 July) which […]
There is an article in the press that suggest completely different views on when the first operational H-92 ‘Cyclone’ helicopter (CH-148 in Canadian military terms) will be delivered to the Canadian Forces by Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation. Greg Weston’s article for CBC News is entitled ominously “New helicopters may not be […]
* Moderator’s Note: This is an excerpt of an article originally published in Airforce Magazine, (Winter, 2008): 11 – 16. It is reprinted here with the permission of the publisher. The article provides an analysis of the fates of the lost Sea Kings. My thanks to Christine Hines, Curator at […]