Defence Procurement – Maritime Helicopter Project – Updated to July 2004 Politics, Procurement Practices, and Procrastination: the Quarter-Century Sea King Helicopter Replacement Saga Stephen Priestley, CASR Researcher [ Update: This In Detail article was first published in June 2003. A decade later, the CH-124 Sea King maritime helicopter is still in service. In 2004, the CH-148 Cyclone was chosen as a replacement. However, it is anyone's guess as to when operational Cyclones will be available to replace the clapped-out CF Sea Kings. How have we arrived at this sorry state of affairs? Peter MacKay, the current MND has described the Maritime Helicopter Project the "worst procurement" effort in Canadian history. In hopes of detecting root causes for maladies of that Maritime Helicopter Project procurement, this article traces the origins of the project and the decisions made by both DND and the various governing parties beginning a staggering 36 years ago.] Part 16 — "... We had joy, we had fun; we had Sea Kings in the Sun ..." 
Scandal knocked out Art Eggleton after five years with little or no forward movement on the MHP. John McCallum became the new Minister of National Defence in May of 2002. In December of
that year, McCallum reversed that ill-considered 'two-part' approach, deciding "to proceed with a single contract rather than two". But McCallum was villified — very
often by the same industry types and defence pundits who had attacked the earlier decision to split the MHP contest into separate airframe and integrated mission systems
parts.
Meanwhile, Sea Kings chewed up maintenance time – 30 hours in the hangar for each flying hour according to some sources – and had become a menace to their crews. The Liberal
government continued to move at a leisurely pace despite several high-profile Sea King crashes. It had become clear, the policy-makers were waiting for Jean Chrétien to retire.
Until December of 2003, the only question was: who would last longer.One-Hour 'Martinizing' — Spending Freezes and the Sea King Replacement 
Within a week of Prime Minister Paul Martin naming his cabinet, replacing the Sea Kings had become a DND top priority. A spending freeze was applied to all other major DND projects.
The Maritime Helicopter Project was the sole exception. And a surprise followed the 17 December 2003 call for tenders issued by the new Minister of National Defence, David Pratt.
DND suddenly decided that the NH-90 was "non compliant" with their MHP requirement and this helicopter was eliminated from the contest. There were rumours mere months earlier that the NH-90 had
all but won the MHP. Speculation at the time suggested that this was a political decision aimed at enhancing industrial relations with France. The NH-90's apparent reversal of favour might
also be seen as being politically motivated – a poke at the Chrétien legacy by Paul Martin, perhaps. Others might suggest that DND had reasons of its own to reject the
NH-90 – size having influenced the MHP from the outset. [1][1] The cabin of an NH-90 NFH is smaller than its competitors. Most critical to DND is cabin height – the NFH is 1.58m high compared to the 1.83m height of an H-92 or EH-101. For MHP, a new NH-90 variant with an enlarged cabin was proposed. This tall NH-90 would better suit the MHP requirement but existed only in mock-up form. [ NB: The NH-90 NFH has suffered delays in delivery similar to the Sikorsky H-92.] Next in this In Detail series > Part 17 – MHP "... more talk of these sad things" CASR | In Detail | MHP Series Index | CH-124 Sea King | CH-148 Cyclone |