Wednesday 8 December 2010

Canada considers buying cancelled VH-71 helicopters

November 2010 - Canada has confirmed that is is considering bidding to buy the VH-71 Kestrel helicopters that are now stored after the Presidential VH-71 program was cancelled.

The Canadians would use these near aero time airframes as "hanger queens" to donate spare parts to the  CH-149 Cormorant fleet operated by the Canadain military for search and rescue missions - the CH-149 Cormorant and VH-71 Kestrel are both based on the same EH-101 airframe.

More details on the Vancouver Sun newspaper website link below

Vancouver Sun OTTAWA — The Defence Department is looking at whether it should buy U.S. President Barack Obama’s helicopter cast-offs as spare parts for the Canadian air force’s Cormorant search-and-rescue choppers.
Preliminary discussions are underway on the possible sale of the US101 helicopters to Canada. The aircraft, which were to form the new fleet of “Marine One” presidential helicopters, are similar to Canada’s CH-149 Cormorant search-and-rescue choppers which, at times, have been grounded because of a lack of spare parts.
There could be as many as eight of the helicopters available for sale - for more see the link below.

Read More on the link below

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Canadian+Forces+Obama+chopper+cast+offs/3755855/story.html