Vanguard Magazine

Dec/Jan 2013

Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR

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S Search anD resCUe by chris thatcher KeyS to caNaDiaN SaR Partnerships and protocols Major ali Laaouan sits back and considers the question for a moment. what are the critical elements to a fixed wing search and rescue (Fwsar) aircraft? although it is early afternoon, the sky has darkened considerably outside Maritime Forces atlantic (MarLaNt) headquarters in Halifax, and the rain, driven by a strong wind, continues to pelt against the window. t hough hurricane season is well underway in the Atlantic, this is just a mild, wet day. Nonetheless, the weather is a reminder of the conditions in which Canadian Forces search and rescue personnel have earned an international reputation. Laaouan is the Officer in Charge of the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Halifax, a SAR operation with one of the largest and most complex areas of responsibility (AOR) in the world, 4.7 million square kilometres of land, sea and ice that stretches from the 70th to 30th meridian west – the eastern portion of the province of Quebec to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean – and includes 29,000 kilometres of coast line, much of it in the low Arctic up to 70 North on Baffin Island. "Endurance," he says after some thought. "Given how big the area is, I need to be able to get there and then do something. I wouldn't go to 30 west on two engines on a day where there's icing. We just had two engines flame out on a Hercules during a search." His boss, Rear-Admiral David Gardam, commander of Search and Rescue Region Halifax, MARLANT and Joint Task Force Atlantic, nods in agreement. But Gardam also has a key technical requirement. "To me, it is all about getting the asset on time with the capability to do something. Just because we get an asset on time, if we can't deploy the SAR technicians with their equipment, 30 DeCeMBer 2012/JanUarY 2013 www.vanguardcanada.com they're useless. So the biggest issue with FWSAR has and always will be a ramp." Small surprise then that both endurance and a rear ramp are among the mandatory requirements for the government's FWSAR program, according to a draft of requirements provided to contending companies during a workshop hosted by Public Works and Government Services in October. The FWSAR program is intended to replace the CF's rapidly aging deHavilland CC-115 Buffaloes, all operated by 442 Transport & Rescue Squadron at CFB Comox. For Laaouan and his team, the dedicated SAR aircraft are the Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules and the AgustaWestland CH-149 Cormorant helicopters. A new aircraft might not necessarily change their response "package" of Hercs, Cormorants and a few Bell CH-146 Griffon helicopters, but they are watching the process closely nonetheless because the scope of their AOR is indicative of the challenges all three of the Canada's Joint Rescue Coordination Centres face. "If you do a SAR in the winter, you are dealing with ice, fog, harsh seas, bitter, bitter temperatures and with people who have minutes of survival time if they are in the water," Gardam says. "You are also dealing with very long distances and very complex coordination problems."

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