Military Helicopters
October 12, 2000
Minister of Defense
Parliament Buildings
Ottawa, ON
To be copied to every Member of
Parliament
Re: Purchase of New Helicopters for the Navy to replace the aging Sea King Helicopters
Dear Sir
From the outset, shipborne helicopters have been a key component of the Canadian Patrol Frigate program, and also for the refitted TRUMP class ships; a long range program first approved by the Cabinet of Mr. Trudeau. This is acknowledged in the current Statement of Requirements that has been sent to all potential suppliers of new helicopters. Put in simple terms (yet in keeping with the complicated Navy specification) we need:
1. All-weather helicopters. The Canadian Navy operates in all
seasons in the North Atlantic Ocean, Arctic Ocean, and the North
Pacific Ocean. These northern oceans are well known for bad
weather, yet the Navy must be ready to do its work including
patrols and even rescues far out at sea, regardless of the
weather.
2.Helicopters with a range of 400 nautical miles out to a mission position, plus capability of staying around that vicinity for over 4 hours, and returning 400 nautical miles to the ship. (Note this simulates an assignment for a Naval helicopter.) We note that the new Statement of Requirements has reduced this range, but that is not a benefit to the Navy, and it will limit certain deployments.
3. Helicopters with lift capacity for a crew of 4, and on occasions 6 to 10 other people, plus military equipment and supplies which are necessary for the 17 or more different kinds of missions that these helicopters will be required to undertake in the normal line of duty.
4. At this point it is not clear whether Canadian Naval helicopters will carry any armaments, but they will have extensive surveillance and electronic gear needed for everything from monitoring foreign ship movements, foreign fishing in our waters, offshore drilling operations, and assisting police with drug smuggling patrols, in addition to a number of military roles for NATO and the UN as well as in the defense of Canada. Naval helicopters must be capable of operating day and night. The Navy must react to all serious situations at any time of day.
All-Weather Helicopter
To be able to operate in all kinds of inclement weather, both day and night, we need the most reliable engines. In military situations the loss of an engine is a real possibility especially in bad weather. In Vietnam, helicopters with two centrally located engines to drive the single main rotor were used widely. It was found that if they lost an engine while in flight (not uncommon in warfare) they could continue on the one remaining engine and land, hopefully at their base. However, if they lost an engine while in the hover mode, they would most likely crash. That possibility is bad while on land because people might be injured or possibly killed, but it is unacceptable if you are at sea, because at sea all persons would perish with virtually no hope of being rescued as the helicopter will sink rapidly. Therefore a helicopter with three engines, such as the Cormorant, is an advantage.
Remember that many ships have only one helicopter, and it usually operates far from its home ship during its missions. The helicopter is an integral part of the fighting capability of the warship. Therefore it is very important to the tactical capability of the ship as a whole, that helicopter to return safely from each mission.
Sometimes the Navy is called on to do a rescue missions in the middle of the ocean, out of the range of the land based search and rescue helicopters. Almost always the weather is very bad, and the safety of the third engine is very desirable, especially while in the hover mode.
The situation is even more serious during the landing on the deck of a pitching and rolling ship at sea. Basically, the helicopter is hooked by steel cable to a winch on the ship, and then the pilot gives the helicopter full power as the helicopter is winched down to the deck. This is a tricky but relatively safe procedure developed by the Canadian Navy. Yet it is an extreme test of the hover power of the helicopter at a most crucial stage of the flight, especially if the helicopter has one engine not functioning for any reason. If only one engine is functioning at this stage, the helicopter will probably crash on the deck, thus removing the flight capability of that ship, not to mention serious injury to the people involved. However a helicopter which has three engines has a much better chance of having at least two engines functioning at this critical point in the flight.
A small but important feature for helicopters operating in
northern waters in winter, is that the rotor should be heated to
prevent ice build up on the rotor blades. "Icing" is a
problem in winter for all aircraft, and helicopters are no
exception.
Operational Range
Naval operations today require that the helicopters spend a good deal of the time hovering. Hovering uses more power and therefore more fuel than a helicopter in straight flight.
Canadian Naval Forces have been on active duty somewhere in the world most of the time for the last 15 years or so. Even in peace time there are many roles for the Navy. The Navy should be a force that can be deployed on relatively short notice, but that presupposes that the ships and helicopters are in a state of readiness, which today is not true. In particular the Sea King helicopters now require up to 30 hours of maintenance for each hour in the air, as opposed to about 7 hours of maintenance for an hour in the air for a relatively new helicopter. Then if the weather is bad, it may not be safe to deploy the Sea Kings.
The desirable capability of a ship's helicopter is to have the helicopter range far from the home ship to do its surveillance. The helicopter travels much faster than the ship, and can cover a wide expanse of ocean relatively quickly. The range of 400 nautical miles was selected after serious consideration of all the options, including the safety of the ships and their crews.
The realities of the peace time uses of Naval forces, the reality of Naval warfare, and the details of Naval operations are sometimes difficult to explain, unless you are present to observe the operations yourself. Nevertheless the necessary tactics are very real, and there is very good reasons for them. Naval personnel tend to be cautious by nature, and with good reason, as the ocean can be very unforgiving.
Suffice to say here, that the normal deployment of Naval
helicopters takes the helicopters far away form the ship, and it
is often necessary to remain about 50 feet above the hostile
ocean repeatedly for significant periods of time while monitoring
hydrophones and various electronic devices to detect the presence
of underwater craft, or sometimes to detect movements of fish or
sea creatures.
Lift Capacity and Size of Helicopter
This subject seems quite obvious. It is mentioned here only to round out the picture. To date we have not heard any controversy on this point. Helicopters for Naval duty need to be relatively big. They have a crew of 4, and need to be able to carry 6 to 10 additional people. Sometimes they are required to transport heavy loads on short notice.
The Fallacy of Purchasing "Off the Shelf" Military Equipment for Canada
"Off the shelf" helicopters are all built to somebody else's equirements. The United States uses several varieties of ships, and it has a whole host of different aircraft available for different purposes. By contrast, the Canadian Navy will have only one aircraft at its disposal, and that one single helicopter must be capable of doing all the missions that are expected from the Canadian Navy, which are almost as many as the US expects from its Navy.
Therefore any "off the shelf" military equipment for
Canadian Armed Forces is not designed for Canadian use,
especially in winter. Canada has a vast territory to defend both
on land, at sea, and also in the air, and that requires equipment
specifically designed to operate in that environment, both in
peace time and when on active service or peace keeping. Canada
must choose its military hardware to suit Canada's unique
requirements, and build into the design, at the drawing board
stage, facilities for Canadian use, some of which are unique to
Canada alone.<
Overview of the Three Helicopters Reported to be Under Consideration
The Sikorsky - A well known and respected US
manufacturer, who designs helicopters for United States
requirements (not Canadian requirements). This is a two engine
helicopter, which has yet to be given formal certification for
flight. Previous studies of the Sirkorsky indicate that when
flying on one engine, which can happen, it will tend to lose
altitude gradually when in straight flight, but in the hover mode
it will lose altitude rapidly, and therefore it would have to
abandon its mission immediately as soon as one engine goes out,
and head for the ship. If it has enough altitude when the engine
goes out, hopefully the ship is close enough for the helicopter
to make it back before the gradual altitude loss puts the
helicopter into the sea.
The Eurocopter - A two engine helicopter with
slightly more power. Yet it is found that if one engine goes out
while the Eurocopter is in the hover mode, it will have to leave
the hover mode immediately, and therefore abandon that part of
its mission. Thus if one engine is lost, the Eurocopter would
have to abandon its mission without delay and head for the ship
on the one remaining engine. However this helicopter has enough
power that it should be able to get back to its ship safely
provided the ship is within its operating range for one engine.
The Cormorant (formerly known as the EH-101)
- this is a three engine helicopter, developed with intention to
sell to Canada, and therefore designed to serve Canadian
requirements for a multi-role shipborne helicopter. If the EH-101
loses one engine while in the hover mode, it still has two
engines functioning, and therefore it has enough power to
continue its mission even while in the hover mode. Thus the EH-101
can complete its mission, and return to the ship normally on the
two remaining engines. The loss of an engine is still a serious
matter, but the helicopter is still capable within reason of
finishing the job it went out to do.
Brief History of the Patrol Frigate (including Helicopter)
Program
The Liberal government of Mr. Trudeau, in 1982 approved the Canadian Patrol Frigate program, which from the beginning presupposed the purchase of new helicopters. New helicopters were needed for the new frigates, in addition to new helicopters to replace the aging Sea Kings which were already flying from existing Canadian Naval ships that were fitted with helicopter landing pads.
So this whole thing began under Mr. Trudeau as a Liberal idea. When the Conservatives came to power, they merely continued the program they had inherited form the Liberals, and took it through its next logical steps, to the point where the new frigates were starting to appear, and the helicopters already under order were expected to be in service in another year or so.
Then the helicopters were dramatically cancelled by Mr. Jean Chrétien as soon as he came to power. And so the idea conceived under a Liberal government was cancelled by the next Liberal government on promise that it was going to save money.
Well we cancelled a $4.2 billion contract that consisted of :
- 50 helicopters at $40 million each...... $ 2.0 billion
- spare parts for 30 years of use.......... $ 1.6 billion
- development costs already spent....... $ 0.6 billion
Contract Amount............ $ 4.2 billion
By virtue of cancelling this contract, contracts with Canadian companies that related to supplying parts for the EH-101 helicopter's overall program for a some 400 or more helicopters to be sold all over the world, was also cancelled. This resulted in the cancellation of some $6.4 billion worth of Canadian jobs. It seems to me that any time you can get $6.4 billion back when you spend $4.2 billion, that is a pretty darn good deal.
Now there are nit pickers that will try to confuse everybody by saying that the figures quoted here are not "in year 2000 dollars" or some such remark - we are just using the figures originally published. Let us forget all that smoke and fog and just accept that we blew a good deal.
The new Statement of Requirements proposes the purchase of up to 28 helicopters for the Navy. We have 12 ships that carry one helicopter each, 4 ships that carry 2 helicopters each, and 3 that carry 3 helicopters each, and that totals 29 helicopters just to fill our at-sea requirements. In addition we should have at least a few helicopters for training pilots before they go to sea, and also a couple shore based helicopters for developing and testing out new equipment and tactics. In addition some helicopters must always be in reserve on shore for major refits that are periodically needed for all helicopters. So how will the Canadian Navy manage with only 28 helicopters?
Yet having some new helicopters will be far better than having
the old helicopters, or no helicopters at all. It is said that
one new frigate with a new helicopter should be able to perform
the same Naval missions as 3 new frigates with the old Sea King
helicopters. The world is continuously changing, and the
requirements of today will give way to more ambitious
requirements of tomorrow. The new helicopters will have to adapt
to these changing needs as they come to pass.
Conclusion
The existing Sea King helicopters are already 35 years old (optimum life of a helicopter is only about 20 years). By the time any new helicopters are delivered and fitted for Canadian use, the old Sea Kings will be 40 years old. These elderly helicopters with outdated technology are unable to fly at least 60% of the time, partly due to the excessive maintenance and unavailability of parts, and partly when the weather gets too bad. Parts are getting scarcer, and maintenance time and costs increased with the age of the helicopters. They require some 30 hours of maintenance on the ground for each hour in the air. Asking our air crews to use such ancient helicopters is unconscionable.
To cope with the all weather requirements for flying Naval missions, we should have three engine helicopters, which favours the Cormorant choice. In addition it should be mentioned that for service in the northern oceans, such as the North Atlantic Ocean (where the Canadian Navy usually works), helicopters are subject to icing of the rotor blade during winter conditions. To deal with that, the Cormorant has provision for heating the rotor blades, but this feature is not available as a standard feature on the other two helicopters under consideration. This is an example of Canadian requirements having been built into the design by the manufacturer.
The Liberal government of Mr.Chrétien has wasted years, during which our Naval personnel have put up with the dangerously old Sea Kings. Yet the Canadian Navy has had ships in hostile service somewhere in the world continuously for more than the last decade (Haiti, the Gulf war, Bosnia, Croatia, just to mention a few). If this government sends its armed forces out on peacekeeping and other missions in which Canadian armed forces personnel are put at risk, then they deserve to have the best equipment money can buy. In fairness to the men and women of the Canadian Navy, let us stop the dilly dallying and purchase the best helicopters for Canadian service.
Respectfully submitted
H. J. Wilkinson, P.Eng., C.Arb., DIIFES
c/o Wilkinson Engineering Inc.
1022 Waterdown Road
Burlington, ON L7T 1N3
Email: yoursay@halsays.com
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