Limited Aurora, Cormorant, Sea King availability

Not so great:

Only half of the surveillance aircraft and rescue helicopters designated to guard Canada's coastlines are able to report for duty on any given day, newly released figures show.

And that poor availability rate has defence critics wondering how the country would cope with a major disaster.

Figures presented to the Senate security and defence committee show the air force is able to muster only nine of its 20 CP-140 [the fleet eventually will be reduced to 10] aging maritime patrol aircraft on any given day for surveillance of the country's three coastlines [two are now in Afstan--another pressure on the CF from the mission].

And just seven of the 14 CH-149 Cormorant search-and-rescue helicopters, purchased just a few years ago, can be called upon for duty.

Figures for the antique CH-124 Sea Kings are even worse: a mere 10 out of 28 aircraft can be spooled up for operations aboard Canadian warships, senior defence officials told the committee.

A defence analyst said it's clear the age of the air force fleet is catching up with the military as elderly aircraft spend more time in the shop and less time on the flight line.

Rob Huebert of the University of Calgary also said it's a condemnation of the convoluted, dysfunctional procurement systems that have sidetracked or delayed replacement planes and helicopters.

The air force has become a "thin blue line" despite the billions of dollars spent recently on new heavy-lift transports and battlefield helicopters, Huebert said in an interview.

A senior air commander said late Tuesday the availability of aircraft is "always of concern" but the service is managing.

"We are meeting our commitments, as best as we can, given the resources we have," said Brig.-Gen. Eldren Thuen, deputy commander mission support at 1st Canadian Air Division Headquarters in Winnipeg.

"I'd like to have a lot more but, given the people that we have and the equipment that we have, we are meeting our mandate and we're doing a pretty reasonable job of it."

Thuen said no critical missions have had to be cancelled in the last few years because there weren't enough aircraft...

The air force is replacing the Sea Kings, but the project is behind schedule. The first new CH-148 Cyclone won't be delivered until November 2010, nearly two decades after the Mulroney government first proposed to retire the ship-borne Sea Kings.

The 1980s vintage CP-140 Auroras are currently going through an airframe and electronics life-extension -- something that accounts for part of their down time -- and are not due to be retired for perhaps another decade [see first link above]...