A civilian maritime patrol aircraft fleet?

But first Denis Coderre, scandal seeker, aircraft expert, and guardian of the public purse:

The federal Liberals want the auditor general to look into the future of the air force’s Aurora maritime patrol planes, a move which puts a local political squeeze on Defence Minister Peter MacKay.

The Liberals have written to Auditor General Sheila Fraser calling for an investigation in to the suspension of a multi-year upgrade contract on the nearly 30-year-old surveillance aircraft.

At the same time, Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald expressed concern that the refit of the CP-140s won’t proceed and promised to lobby Ottawa "aggressively" to ensure the multimillion-dollar contract with Halifax-based IMP Aerospace continues.

MacKay, who represents Nova Scotia in the federal cabinet, testified before the House of Commons defence committee Wednesday that no decision had been made.

He conceded publicly for the first time that the Defence Department is looking at the possibility of buying new patrol planes [emphasis added] to monitor the East and West Coasts, as well as the Arctic.

"We’re looking at a number of options, which include looking at the purchase — eventually — of a replacement aircraft to provide that capability," he said.

The department has postponed a decision on whether to continue with the major improvements to its fleet of 18 CP-140s until after Parliament rises for the Christmas holidays.

Earlier this week, critics lambasted the deferral, calling it an attempt to bury what’s expected to be a bad news announcement for MacKay.

MacDonald says the upgrades are crucial to the province’s aerospace industry and has already met with MacKay to discuss the future of the Auroras.

"It’s very important to employment. We have good-paying, solid jobs," he said Wednesday in Halifax.

"The federal government has a good aircraft there and it’s my hope and we’ll be pushing forward aggressively to ensure that continues."

Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre said he believes the CP-140 still has a lot of life left in it and his party will oppose replacing the 1980s-vintage four-engine planes.

The refit, started under the Liberals, was supposed to keep the Auroras flying until 2025, but defence sources argue that by the time it’s done in the 2012-13 time frame, the air force could have brand new planes.

The air force has received new heavy-lift C-17s and will receive new medium-sized C-130J cargo planes, fixed-wing search and rescue planes, as well as navy and battlefield helicopters, said Coderre.

"I believe the time has come to think about taxpayers’ money," said Coderre about the nearly $20 billion in spending.

"I truly believe those planes (CP-140s) are working. They are working very, very well.

"Instead of flipping through the catalogue and saying what’s the best thing we can have, then I guess the time has come to proceed with the upgrade."

The Auroras have already received an improved navigation system, global positioning systems and better radar under the first two phases of the refurbishment.

The next two phases, which are now on hold, would have given the aircraft better data management system, sensors — such as imaging radar — and protection against surface-to-air missiles. Companies, including IMP Aerospace, were preparing for the next round when the project was put in limbo in September.

A thought: why not separate general maritime, and arctic, surveillance duties (including vessel identification, pollution detection, fishery enforcement) and part of marine search and rescue from the Air Force and make them a civilian mission? As Transport Canada is already doing for pollution detection with a modified Bombardier Q Series.

Fisheries and Oceans meanwhile contracts with Provincial Airlines for three Beach King Air 200s for maritime surveillance, two east, one west coast (Aurora work for DFO also noted at link).

In fact Q Series, modified by Field Aviation, are used in the general maritime role by Iceland (eight hour endurance), the US, Sweden, Japan and Australia.

Transport Canada could well operate such a fleet (despite their effort to become mainly a non-operational agency) on behalf of Fisheries and Oceans, Canadian Coast Guard, Environment Canada, CBSA/RCMP, CF as required, and others.

The Air Force would then presumably need fewer maritime patrol planes (whether Auroras or replacement) that would concentrate on military missions such as ASW and armed interdiction (and terrestrial surveillance, e.g. Afstan?).

And, if the Field Aviation Bombardiers actually fit the bill for such a broad suite of missions as outlined above, acquiring them would be a political plus I would imagine.

Some UAVs would also come in handy for maritime/arctic missions (operated by the Air Force for both military and civilian missions).

Update: The links for the Transport Canada surveillance aircraft within the post linked to above no longer work. Two that give details of the program are here and here. Moreover Tranport Canada actually uses four Bombardier aircraft for aerial surveillance (the three mentioned in this Oct. 2006 report, plus the new one with the advanced sensor suite; another one with that suite appears to be being readied for Pacific use--I can't figure out if it's a new plane or one of the other three being upgraded):

A representative of Transport Canada, Mr. Louis Armstrong, highlighted several initiatives aimed at increasing the effectiveness of the National Aerial Surveillance Program (NASP), notably the acquisition of a new suite of remote sensing equipment for the Dash 8 pollution surveillance aircraft. The NASP utilizes three aircraft located strategically across Canada to conduct pollution surveillance. Two of these aircraft are leased from Transport Canada's Aircraft Services Directorate, and the third is under contracted from Provincial Airlines Limited. During the November meeting Transport Canada noted that over-flight statistics indicates a decline in observed oil pollution over the past few years. It was also emphasized that there has been a recent increase in aircraft patrol hours funded through the Oceans Action Plan, coupled with the acquisition of earth observation imagery to task aircraft.

So in fact there already is a fleet of seven civilian aircraft doing maritime patrol for the Canadian government: four Bombardiers doing pollution patrols for Transport Canada and the three PAL King Airs doing fisheries patrols for DFO.