by Ray Dick

From Top: The C-17 Globemaster has been used to ferry Canadian troops and equipment into Afghanistan; members of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry disembark from a USAF C-17 Globemaster at Kandahar airfield in Afghanistan; one of five Canadian Forces Polaris aircraft.

Canadian Forces air transport commander Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon Smith was on leave from his base in Trenton, Ont., on Oct. 8, 2001, when his vacation was interrupted by a telephone call from his superiors. The message was for him to prepare to take a package of people and aircraft to the Persian Gulf region as part of the Canadian contribution to Operation Apollo, the fight against international terrorism.

It was a request not entirely unexpected by a military man. It was less than a month since that infamous day of
Sept. 11, 2001, when thousands of people died in terrorist attacks with hijacked planes in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania at the hands of Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida terrorist network. “This was war, an act of conflict,” recalled Smith, commanding officer of 429 Squadron at Canadian Forces Base Trenton, where 18 of Canada’s aging 32 C-130 Hercules mainline transport aircraft are located. “We were not sure at that time what our actual destination in the Gulf would be, but we would be on 24-hours notice to get there.”

From January to July 2002, Smith and some 150 personnel and three Hercules transports shuttled supplies between their still-secret base in the Gulf region to the hundreds of Canadian troops based in Kandahar, soldiers who fought alongside American troops against al-Qaida terrorists in the mountains of Afghanistan.

Since the operation began, Canadian Forces from Trenton and Winnipeg logged 590 hours in moving Canadian personnel and equipment in a long range or strategic mission from Canada to the Gulf, carrying 3.5 million kilograms of cargo and 2,300 passengers. The Tactical Airlift Detachment, which is still operating in the theatre of conflict, has logged more than 4,000 hours in the air on more than 640 missions, airlifting more than 5,000 passengers and more than 4.7 million kilograms of cargo in and around the Persian Gulf.

Although Smith said his mission was tiring, he described the tour as remarkably successful considering the environmental conditions in the theatre and that many of the Hercules aircraft are nearing 40 years of service. “We flew two Hercs per day, achieving 91 per cent of our task of missions successfully flown.” The Canadian transports are now on their third rotation to the Gulf, still operating from that secret desert base, and there may be many more rotations to come. The federal government announced earlier this year that it will send up to 3,000 Canadian troops to Afghanistan this fall to join a coalition of troops serving to keep the peace in Kabul.

But the multi-million-dollar question is, how will they get there? While Smith and his aging C-130s have been successful in their tactical resupply of the Canadian troops in foreign theatres, the fact remains that the Canadian Forces have virtually no strategic heavy-lift capacity, both air and sea, to get Canadian troops and their equipment across the oceans to scenes of conflict in a timely manner. The option is to rent that capacity, either from the American forces as was done when the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry battle group from Edmonton joined the American forces in Kandahar or from civilian sources such as the giant Russian-based Antonov 124 aircraft that is about the same size as the American C-5A Galaxy.

The rental costs are steep, but relatively small compared to what the bill would be for new aircraft and ships capable of providing the Canadian Forces with an air and sealift capacity. And while many were watching with interest to see what additional funding the military would get in the last federal budget, the $800 million provided was encouraging, but also disappointing. Encouraging because it will allow the military to pay its bills, but disappointing because it provides no opportunity to acquire new transport planes or ships.

And so for the foreseeable future, the rental route or some other shared-cost transport system with North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies are the only options left, especially after Defence Minister John McCallum dropped the axe on the buying option. While speaking at the seminar of the Conference of Defence Associations in late February, McCallum said, “The Canadian Forces will not be unilaterally purchasing large transport planes at a cost of some $3 to $5 billion.” He told the gathering of serving and retired military officers, academics and politicians that only two of Canada’s 18 NATO allies­the United States and Great Britain­have this capability “and their militaries are far larger than ours will ever be. We will consider other, much more cost-effective options, such as a strategic lift capability shared with NATO allies, including the United States.”

And so what does it cost to rent the equipment and get our personnel in theatre? “It cost $18 million to get the PPCLI battle group into and out of Afghanistan,” explained Colonel Pat Dowsett, a project manager at National Defence Headquarters on future strategic airlift. All of that $18 million was spent on renting C-17 Globemasters from the American military to ferry some Canadian troops and all their equipment into and out of Kandahar, some 67 flights of C-17s in all. Had the Canadian Forces rented the Antonov–if it was available–the rental cost would have been $30,000 (Cdn) per flying hour.

While McCallum’s statement at the Conference of Defence Associations seminar was not exactly what some analysts and military planners wanted to hear, the key element that remains for most is that Canada badly needs heavy-lift capability one way or another.

Consider what the Canadian Forces have in tactical transport capability by air and sea. Of the 32 Hercules aircraft, 18 are based in Trenton and the rest are at Greenwood, N.S., and Winnipeg. Of the total, 19 are nearing 40 years of age and their availability is below 50 per cent when service is demanded. “They are slow, and would require lots of fuel stops to get a battle group overseas,” said Dowsett. Even then, the Hercs cannot carry the heavy equipment, such as tanks or even the new LAV III armoured fighting vehicle. “It would take three C-130s to transport two LAV IIIs and even then the LAVs would have to be disassembled, the turrets removed, so they could fit into the cargo space.” Also based at Trenton are five of the new Polaris jet-powered transport aircraft, a version of the civilian Airbus 310 that can be used to transport personnel and light freight on pallets.

As for sealift, there are the navy supply ships Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship Protecteur and HMCS Preserver, which have been kept busy supplying the destroyers and frigates now stationed in the Persian Gulf, enforcing embargoes against Iraq and taking part in the war against terrorism. Neither operational support ship, however, is capable of large-scale sealift of personnel and heavy armour, a task that has been contracted out to civilian shipping with all its inherent dangers. Consider the embarrassment to the Canadian Forces in the summer of 2000 when equipment being returned by private ship to Canada from a mission in Europe was stranded in mid-ocean because of a financial dispute among the ship’s civilian owners. The ship–GTS Katie–eventually had to be forced by warship into a Canadian harbour after being boarded by the Canadian military.

A couple of years ago, when military planners began looking at the problem of providing adequate heavy-lift capability, they came up with these primary requirements: Six C-17 Globemasters or 12 Airbus 400s, a plane that is still on the drawing board and will not be available before a 2005-2006 time frame. The Globemasters would cost about $185 million each. Although the price has not yet been set, the Airbus is expected to cost approximately $100 million apiece.

As for naval requirements, Commander Dave Harper of float logistics and sealift capability at National Defence Headquarters said the fleet needs at least three multi-role transport ships of the roll-on, roll-off variety to provide a heavy-sealift capability. The ships would be about the same size as Protecteur and Preserver, about 24,000 tons displacement, but would have additional deck space so that heavy vehicles and equipment could be driven on and off the ship.

However, in light of McCallum’s comments, both the airlift and sealift proposals don’t appear to be going anywhere. Meanwhile, the question of renting airlift capacity, or even sharing airlift capacity with allies, depends on availability. It would not be unheard of in the event of a crisis that several countries would be needing air transport at the same time. Arrangements would have to be made to have some of the transport planes based permanently in North America. And civilian transports, such as the Russian Antonov, do not fly into airports that could be endangered by hostile action. The Globemasters of the American Air Force have no such restrictions.

There is a similar problem of availability in renting ships in times of crisis. And there is also the additional problem of geography. Some international crises are bound to occur in landlocked areas, far away from deep-water ocean ports.

David Pratt, co-chairman of the government’s Standing Committee on Defence and Veterans Affairs, agrees something must be done to improve the heavy airlift and sealift capability. “We are definitely in need of better airlift ability,” he said, noting that if more transport ships are not made available, Canada could resign itself to being a “coastal navy, rather than a blue water navy.” Without a strategic heavy-lift capability, Canada would be hampered in foreign deployments in support of NATO.

Retired major-general Marc Terreau, who serves on the Air Command Advisory Council, added his voice to the call for more heavy-lift capacity. “We don’t have enough capacity to do all things at all times.”

He said rust-out is a big problem. “What we have is getting old,” he explained, noting that the only way to overcome the situation is to have a defence policy review, something the government has promised will happen soon. “The world has changed,” said Terreau. “We need to know what the government wants us to do,” such as what type of missions to plan for in the future and, most importantly, what the Canadian people expect in transport capability.

Retired lieutenant-general Lou Cuppens, chairman of the Legion’s National Defence Committee, said the Canadian Forces does have transport for the short hauls with their Hercules and Polaris aircraft, but it was limited and had no long-range capability to ferry heavy equipment or refuel fighter planes en route to distant theatres of conflict. As for heavy-sealift capability, there was none, although discussions on cost sharing for a shared NATO fleet were continuing. Another possibility he mentioned was a system used by the U.S. Marines in which roll-on, roll-off civilian transport vessels are under permanent lease to the military.

“We have to do something if we want to play a role on the world stage,” said military analyst Martin Shadwick of York University in Toronto. These were not the high defence priority days of the 1960s, when then-Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson first ordered the Hercules aircraft that have been used successfully throughout the years on peacekeeping missions. The missions had changed and “we need 21st century attention” to the air- and sealift problems.

Shadwick, too, looked for a defence policy review, “hopefully within a year.” But a new prime minister would be taking over early next year, and “stuff is wearing out in the meantime.”

Professor Joel Sokolsky of the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ont., said the forces have no rapid-deployment capability. He was more concerned, however, about replacement for the aging Sea King helicopters that accompany the Canadian fleet to hostile theatres than he was about lift capability. The government has said for a few years now that replacing the 40-year-old high-maintenance choppers is a high priority, but as yet no contract has been let.

Sokolsky said it is more important that Canadian troops can do the mission once they arrive in theatre, rather than how they get there. “It would be more embarrassing if we couldn’t do the mission than if we arrived three weeks late.”

Doing the job was the primary concern for Smith and his crew as they flew two resupply flights a day into and through Kandahar from their secret base in the desert. And although this was war, and Smith’s crew was supplying Canadian soldiers in battle for the first time since Korea, the environmental conditions were not new to the Montreal-born native, who has flown missions to such areas as Somalia and Ethiopia in Africa and even some relief missions to South America. He started his career in the Canadian Forces as a navigator, was reclassified as a pilot in 1987 and was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and commander of 429 Sqdn. in 2000.

In Afghanistan, his crew was busy, but successful during its six-month tour. “There never seems to be enough airlift to go around,” he said. “Everybody wants airlift, but at the end of the day we had enough planes to do the job. We were full up, but busy is good.” He also spoke highly of the Hercules aircraft, “a remarkable plane, considering the environmental conditions” in that theatre and “what we brought to the table.” He summed up the mission in two words: “No grief.”