MacKay announces new helicopters, surveillance drones for Afghan mission
OTTAWA - Canadian troops battling Taliban militants in Afghanistan will finally get the helicopter support they've sought since 2006 in a complicated arrangement involving a commercial contractor and the U.S. Army.
The push to get battlefield helicopters for the bloodied Canadian army in Kandahar has been mired in defence bureaucracy for almost two years.
Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Public Works Minister Christian Paradis formally announced Thursday that Canada will buy six used CH-47D Chinooks from the Americans for $292 million.
The plan is virtually identical to a proposal that was rejected by air force staff in August 2006, according to documents obtained by The Canadian Press.
Before the Chinooks arrive in Kandahar early next year, just before the February 2009 deadline imposed by the Manley commission, the air force plans to lease six Soviet-style helicopters from a commercial company for $36 million.
Those helicopters, Russian-built Mi-8s, will be available for one year, starting this fall, and will take Canadian soldiers off the bloody, bomb-laced roads of Kandahar.
"After some dark years after previous governments starved our Forces, as the prime minister has announced with much enthusiasm, we're happy to say that Canada is back and I'm proud to make this announcement today in support of that claim," MacKay told an audience at an air base in St. Hubert, Que.
Parliament's extension of Canada's combat mission to 2011 came with two major equipment caveats - helicopters and unmanned surveillance aircraft, both recommended by a panel led by former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley.
The short-term lease of Russian helicopters from Toronto-based Skylink and the purchase of U.S. Army Chinooks, already in theatre, will not affect the air force's long-term, $4.2-billion plan to buy 16 brand new CH-47F Chinooks, MacKay said.
In addition, the Defence Department will spend $109 million on two separate leases of unmanned surveillance aircraft.
Getting to Thursday's helicopter announcement has been a tortuous bureaucratic exercise.
The internal debate has pitted the army, frantic to reduce soldiers' exposure to deadly roadside bombs, against a frustrated air force that's demanded it get a versatile aircraft, useful in more places than just Afghanistan.
The Conservative government announced in June 2006 that it would buy 16 new medium-to-heavy-lift helicopters, a decision rushed forward after Canada's battle-group commander in Kandahar said aircraft support was an urgent requirement.
Since deploying to southern Afghanistan, soldiers have hitched rides on the helicopters of other nations, when they were available.
The Boeing-manufactured Chinook was quickly identified as the chopper of choice by the air force and the federal government began sole-source contract negotiations.
But the whole process came to a screeching halt in August 2006 as defence planners debated what kind of missions the choppers would do and the equipment that needed to be built into the aircraft.
The air force said the CH-47F - the latest Chinook model - was the most versatile choice, but planners realized it would be 2011 at the earliest before they could be delivered.
A Sept. 19, 2006, briefing note to then-chief of defence staff, Gen. Rick Hillier, show defence staff debated the "interim lease-loan-acquisition of existing D - or first production F-model Chinooks."
But the planners rejected idea because while the "D-model may be available but they are significantly different aircraft" from Canadian Forces medium-to heavy-lift helicopters.
It was believed that under such a scheme delivery of the coveted F-model Chinooks "would ultimately be delayed."
The Defence Department decided to try to convince other countries, who'd placed orders ahead of Canada in the Boeing production line, to change places - a strategy that ultimately failed.
Lt.-Col. Stan Grabstas, a senior planner on the strategic joint staff, said in an interview that he couldn't answer for decisions made about the Chinooks in the past.
"Where have they (the government) been for the last two years?" Liberal defence critic Bryon Wilfert asked.
"They knew coming into office that this was a priority. They should have put all of the bureaucrats in one room, locked the door and told them not to come out until this was done. It's inexcusable (because) lives were at stake."
New Democrat defence critic Dawn Black says the two-year delay represented a failure of political will and the inability of the Conservatives to recognize what was really important to the soldiers on the ground.
It took the intervention of John Manley's blue-ribbon panel on Canada's future in Afghanistan to force the entrenched officials to revisit the earlier proposal.
But retired major-general Lew MacKenzie said NATO should be the place the Canadian public vents its frustration because "it's pathetic in an alliance of three million soldiers and 2,000 bloody helicopters that Canada has to run around" and acquire this transport.
NATO's repeated call for extra helicopters has met with a lukewarm response and the alliance was put in the embarrassing position last fall of hiring private contractors to shuttle cargo between bases because members were unwilling to expose their own aircraft.
The leased Russian helicopters will come from Toronto-based Skylink Aviation Inc., will be upgraded to include a defensive system and will come with their own pilots, Defence Department officials said.
The federal government has also stipulated the Mi-8s, a 1960s vintage design, be no more than five years old.
Canadian air force pilots are currently training in the U.S. to fly the Chinooks.
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