Griffons for Vancouver Olympics

Quite a few indeed (and maybe none for Afstan?)--a post by David Pugliese at his Ottawa Citizen blog:

Military and security planning for the 2010 Olympic Games in British Columbia is still in its early stages. But one of the things that crossed my desk recently are the numbers of Canadian Forces helicopters that could be involved. I’m told at this stage 28 Griffons will be assigned to the Games for security duties. (With a year and a half still to go I'd expect that number to change).

Now of course, a number of those Griffons will be on standby for JTF2, which will be discretely waiting in the wings to respond to any major security threat. Others will be used for surveillance.

The Air Force has launched the Interoperable Griffon Reconnaissance Escort Surveillance System (INGRESS) project will acquire 19 electro-optical/infra-red sensor systems to be installed on the helicopters. Sixty-four Griffons are to be modified to carry the equipment. (The first delivery of the systems would be in November. The final delivery would be by the summer of next year. Bell Helicopter in Mirabel would be installing the systems on board the Griffons.)

The Griffons outfitted with the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance package will be ready to go for the Olympics.

But those I was talking to in the Air Force world made an interesting point. Twenty-eight helicopters means at least 28 full Griffon crews. That’s a lot of crews and pilots and one reason - it has been suggested to me - that Griffons aren’t going to be sent to Afghanistan any time soon to fly escort for the Chinook helicopters the Canadian Forces will be using [more here from Babbling--in mid-June Mr Pugliese seemed to be expecting the Griffons to go to Afstan]. As you recall, Canada is now looking to its allies to supply escort choppers for the used Chinook Ds the Canadian Forces will be operating in Kandahar in 2009.

The other bone of contention in regards to the Olympics is that local helicopter firms in the Vancouver and Whistler area are ticked off because of flying restrictions that will be placed over a number of areas. They say that will cut into their business at a time when business should be very very good.