By Ken Pole | July 25, 2013 Estimated reading time 4 minutes, 15 seconds.
Royal Canadian Air Force operational test and evaluation personnel, including pilots, tactical aircrew and technicians at Canadian Forces Base Shearwater, N.S., are to begin early training next month on Sikorsky CH-148 Cyclone maritime helicopters, even though the federal government still refuses to take formal ownership of the ships and continues to call them “interim” aircraft.
The Department of National Defence (DND) confirmed this to Canadian Skies on July 24, after a senior officer at Sikorsky’s parent company, United Technologies Corp. (UTC), disclosed it during a teleconference with market analysts. Asked for an update on the Canadian Maritime Helicopter (CMH) program, Greg Hayes, senior vice-president and chief financial officer at UTC, said he felt “better about CMH today than we have probably in the last year” and that Sikorsky was “gaining momentum” with the Canadian government.
“We’ve got four helicopters up in Shearwater,” he said, adding that five more are “ready to be delivered” from storage at a former U.S. Air Force base in Plattsburgh, N.Y. Two more are being flight-tested by Sikorsky in Florida and Connecticut, and there is “a solid plan” to deliver eight others “going into the year.” The remaining nine are in final assembly, making up Canada’s total order of 28 helicopters to replace its 50-year-old fleet of Sikorsky CH-124 Sea Kings.
Hayes acknowledged that there are still “some issues” to work through with the Canadian government, but “it’s all pretty positive right now.”
In an email to Canadian Skies, DND confirmed that “the government . . . and Sikorsky have agreed to begin preliminary Operational Testing and Evaluation (OT&E)” this August – which involves pilot, tactical aircrew and technician training – but the government still “will not be taking ownership” of the aircraft. “They will remain under Sikorsky ownership and control and will be operated under a Specific Purpose Flight Permit,” which DND described as “a standard and essential activity in the material acquisition process.”
DND did not respond to questions about how many crews would be involved in the OT&E training, how long it would take, and whether the instructors would be RCAF or Sikorsky personnel.
Meanwhile, without going into detail, the government’s official purchasing agent, Public Works & Government Services Canada (PWGSC), has told Canadian Skies that Sikorsky “has yet to deliver any compliant aircraft” and that it would “continue to enforce the aircraft manufacturer’s contract provisions.”
PWGSC has steadfastly refused to publicly explain what level of compliance Sikorsky has achieved to date, but the main hurdle to the government taking title to the aircraft is the missions systems suite. It has proven to be far more complicated than Sikorsky or its key partner, General Dynamics Canada, had expected.
With the system sufficiently mature for the RCAF to begin flight training, Sikorsky continues to press the government to accept a “block” approach, which is a commonly accepted approach within the industry and which Sikorsky has executed with its other aircraft customers worldwide. “They’d come back in six months and install a software patch, and another in another six months or so, until the aircraft is 100 per cent in compliance,” an industry source told Canadian Skies. In the meantime, Sikorsky could deliver aircraft that could assume a wide range of missions currently being flown by the Sea King, including critical search and rescue missions. To date, the government continues to demand 100 per cent compliance before it will accept the helicopters, but Sikorsky has indicated it is pressing full speed ahead on production.
