Air force worried about keeping new maritime helicopters' weapons systems operational

The air force is worried about keeping the aging weapons systems aboard its CH 148 Cyclones operational into the future, according to leaked documents obtained by CBC News. It's an understatement to say that the $5.8 billion maritime helicopters project is a work in progress for the Department of National Defence (DND) and the aircraft's U.S.

manufacturer, Sikorsky. It will soon be 20 years since a previous Liberal government ordered the aircraft to replace its fleet of CH 128 Sea Kings, 1960s era workhorses which saw decades of service flying off the decks of Canadian warships. But even after two decades and billions of dollars spent, not all of the 28 Cyclone helicopters the federal government originally ordered have been delivered.

And DND doesn't consider the Cyclones delivered so far to have reached their final "operating capability" — an important designation that indicates the military is satisfied it got what it paid for. Late Tuesday, the defence department acknowledged in a media statement that it's searching for an outside consultant to "define potential options" for the fleet.

Military procurement chief wants defence firms to stop overpromising, underdelivering Families sue U.S. manufacturer over helicopter crash that killed 6 Canadian military members Design flaw blamed for cracks in tails of military's Cyclone helicopters Retired colonel Larry McWha — an aviation expert who commanded 423 Squadron when it flew CH 124 Sea Kings — said maintaining and upgrading the Cyclone's weapons system will be a huge, costly challenge because Canada is the only country flying the CH 148, a militarized version of the Sikorsky S 92.

Components will become harder to find and may even have to be specially manufactured, said McWha, who has followed the Cyclone program from the beginning. The leaked documents — a Sept. 23, 2023 PowerPoint presentation and a spreadsheet that details technical concerns cited by air bases and air force wings across the country — show that 12 Wing in Shearwater, N.S., where many of the Cyclones are based, questioned the "sustainability of the CH 148 Weapon System" in the medium and long term.

WATCH | Weapons systems for maritime helicopters may soon be outdated: Air force worried 'new' helicopter's weapons systems will be obsolete 6 hours ago Duration 2:45 A leaked internal report warns the Canadian Armed Forces Cyclone helicopters have weapons systems that are becoming obsolete as the Forces continue to wait for the final two helicopters' delivery — almost 20 years after they were initially procured.

The documents, which were verified by CBC News, were presented to senior military leaders last fall. "Operational Relevance is in question as critical systems such as secure SECURE COMMUNICATION / TACTICAL DATA LINK / PRIMARY WEAPON are set to expire without replacement pathways," says the spreadsheet.

In a written statement, DND said the air force is aware of the concerns. An optimistic timeline "The replacement of secure comms, tactical datalink and weapons (an upgraded torpedo) are all being actively pursued and funding is being sought to complete all the upgrades," said the statement.

Air force planners still don't anticipate getting the replacement systems installed and run through the initial testing phase until 2031. The department said stopgap measures are being considered. "However, investigations are ongoing to identify and implement limited interim capabilities for both the torpedo and secure comms by 2025 in order to reduce the operational impact," the DND statement said.

"Investigation of a limited interim tactical data system is also ongoing." When the Cyclones were first ordered in 2004, the Liberal government of then prime minister Paul Martin predicted that the helicopter would be in service by 2010 2011 at the latest. That proved to be a wildly optimistic timeline, as neither DND nor the manufacturer anticipated the technical complications that came with converting a civilian chopper to military use.

Sunk costs By 2013, the Conservative government of then prime minister Stephen Harper (which also hired an outside consultant) was looking at scrapping the Cyclone project altogether as costs and delays mounted. But the government — which had already spent $1.7 billion on the project by that point and had received just four test helicopters — opted to stick with the program.

Under the terms of a revised contract with Sikorsky, signed almost a decade ago, the air force would start to receive 28 "fully capable" CH 148 Cyclone helicopters in 2018. In its statement, DND acknowledged that the helicopters have not reached their full capability and likely won't be fully operational by the stated 2025 deadline.

"Given current personnel and resource constraints, it is unlikely 12 Wing and the RCAF will achieve FOC [Full Operating Capability] by 2025," the statement read. A scarcity of personnel, parts The air force blames shortages of skilled personnel — a problem that plagues the military across the board.

It says it can't assign enough skilled people to the airbase in Shearwater to bring the fleet up to standard. "An additional reason for the delay involves disruptions in the global supply chain that are creating delays across most industries," said the DND statement. "As such, there has been a delay in the delivery of the 27th and 28th aircraft as Sikorsky waits for parts.

The delivery of the 27th aircraft is expected in the first part of 2024 and in [second quarter] 2025 for the 28th and final aircraft." A Royal Canadian navy CH 148 Cyclone helicopter deploys flares in a training exercise in November 2022. (Royal Canadian Navy/Twitter) McWha said it's significant that the department is acknowledging the impact of the parts shortage.

"Sustainability of the Cyclone fleet has been a problem and will only get worse," he said. "If the manufacturer cannot get delivery of the parts necessary to deliver a contracted product to the customer, one can only imagine the difficulty that the customer must have in getting replacement parts to support products that have already been delivered." An 'orphan' system The problem, said McWha, relates to the fact that the Cyclone is what the military calls an "orphan weapon system" — no other countries are flying it and it draws on a small pool of replacement parts.

The communications and combat system the air force is now struggling to replace may have been state of the art in 2004, he said, but it was also unique to the helicopter. "Even if it is possible to find a supplier willing to produce replacement parts or repair failed components for such a small fleet, the cost of doing so will inevitably be very high," said McWha.

"This was entirely foreseeable back in 2004." Analysis The Cyclone chopper crash probe could lead the military to some uncomfortable conclusions Video Fatal Cyclone crash just the latest tragedy in tortured saga of Canada's military helicopters A final $2.1M spent on maintenance for Canada's aging Sea Kings Unless the government throws lots of money at them, he added, the "manufacturers have no incentive to retain the technicians and engineering to service or support a tiny obsolescent fleet that is no longer on their production line." Dave Perry, a defence analyst and president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, said it's interesting the defence department has chosen to get outside advice.

He added that, given all the problems with the Cyclone project to date, he's wondering whether federal officials are considering replacing the Cyclone with something less troublesome. "There's been some Canadian allies recently that have done essentially exactly that, moved to cut their losses on some helicopters which were underperforming and look at alternatives.

I don't know whether or not we're quite at that situation," said Perry, whose organization has hosted conferences that occasionally have been sponsored by defence contractors..