National Defence Committee on March 23rd, 2015

[Rick Norlock, Conservative, Northumberland—Quinte West, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Colonel, for appearing today.

As commander of 8 Wing Trenton, the hub of air mobility operations in Canada, could you update this committee on the contributions of the various squadrons at CFB Trenton to the safety and security of the Canadian Arctic, to Canadians at large, and in particular to the defence of North America, the reason for this study?

[Col David W. Lowthian]

Yes, sir. Thank you for the question.

Routinely here at 8 Wing we do conduct resupply and sustainment missions for Canada's Arctic. Canadian Forces station Alert receives flights weekly or biweekly from 436 Squadron operating the CC-130J Hercules. As well, twice a year we undergo Operation Boxtop. It lasts two to three weeks and provides a wet lift and dry lift of goods up to Canadian Forces station Alert. A similar operation that supports the station in Eureka is Operation Nevus. In a similar fashion, it's mostly for dry goods and some wet lift.

Being more or less the airlift gateway to all operations at home and abroad, again speaking of Canada's north, routinely when the army conducts short or extended operations and exercises in Canada's north, it is our aircraft that are flying to various locations in the north to get them there. Similarly, should our fighters have to deploy to an FOL, again it will be our aircraft, be it the CC-130J Hercules or the C-17 Globemaster, that will be bringing personnel and equipment to some of our forward operating locations in the Arctic. At the same time, should our fighters require air-to-air refuelling en route to the northern locations, it will be our CC-150 Polaris aircraft. Of the five, two of them are configured to provide air-to-air refuelling not only for Canadian fighters but also when we do deploy, similar to Operation Impact abroad, multinational fighters as well.

On the search and rescue front, 424 Squadron is responsive within the Trenton search and rescue region, which, as described in my opening statement, covers the Prairies, Ontario, much of Quebec, and then all the way up into the Arctic. Their inventory are C-130H Hercules aircraft and CH-146 Griffon helicopters; 8 Wing shares that mandate with 17 Wing Winnipeg because of the size of the region.

[Rick Norlock, Conservative, Northumberland—Quinte West, ON]

Thank you very much.

I understand you played a directing role in JOINTEX, an exercise that demonstrates the abilities of a Canadian-led multinational joint integrated task force. Could you please elaborate on Canada's role as a leader in this exercise, and how JOINTEX contributes to the defence of North America?

[Col David W. Lowthian]

JOINTEX 15 will take place in the fall, but many of the planning iterations are being pursued right now. I've been appointed as deputy commander for this specific exercise. I was also chief of staff for the first JOINTEX in 2013, two years ago. It had a different look in that it was conducted entirely in Canada, and any multinational participation was all notional. It was a mix of live and simulated. There was a very efficient use of the resources. It bridged three ongoing operations or exercises—army, navy, and air force. JOINTEX provided that command and control capstone to provide direction, leadership, and accountability so that Canadian interests, both nationally and within the coalition, were looked after.

The nucleus of this command and control capability resides within 1st Canadian Division based out of Kingston, Ontario. It's a relatively small headquarters, commanded by a two-star general and scalable upwards of about 400 people, to manage an operation of such scale, a multinational joint inter-agency task force, just as described. JOINTEX 15 is very much in line with this in that it will exercise this capability in the same way. It will grow from that nucleus. However, this exercise will be nested within a NATO exercise called Trident Juncture, which is an exercise that NATO uses to ready their NATO response force on a six-month rotation. Over the next year Portugal, Italy, and Spain will be participating as well. We've been able to join up on what is, as far as exercise skills go, a fairly large one, so there will be a great training benefit from that.

[Rick Norlock, Conservative, Northumberland—Quinte West, ON]

Thank you.

I guess it was last year—time flies—when Minister Nicholson was in attendance at 8 Wing to announce the addition of the fifth CC-177 Globemaster.

Can you expand on the effect this additional Globemaster will have on the entire fleet, and how it contributes to the readiness of Canadian Forces troops at CFB Trenton?

[Col David W. Lowthian]

We have four C-17 aircraft now, and in about one week's time we will receive a fifth. The serviceability and availability rate of that aircraft is exceptional, but again, there are only four. So a fifth aircraft will provide the Canadian Armed Forces, and the Canadian government for that matter, with the flexibility to respond in great ways should there be competing demands.

From my perspective, the best example would have occurred last year during Operation Renaissance, when we established an air bridge operation from Trenton through Comox, British Columbia, through Honolulu at air force base Hickam, onwards to Guam, and then into the Philippines. It was quite an extraordinary air bridge to what is probably the most challenging location at which one could imagine setting one up, and every 24 hours we sent out one aircraft from our fleet of four. At the same time we were still bringing troops home from Afghanistan. As well during that period, we were given the task of carrying some vehicles in support of the UN overseas. We did all of this with our fleet of four aircraft. There was some stress on the availability. We were able to do it all, but all of that was to say that with a fifth aircraft, we will have much more flexibility to support interests such as all of these.

[The Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

Thank you, Colonel.

Thank you, Mr. Norlock.

Mr. Harris, go ahead for seven minutes, please.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

Thank you very much for joining us today. CFB Trenton obviously has a huge responsibility, some of which is for the defence of North America directly, such as with the CF-18 fast response through NORAD. But much of your work is in transport, and I have a specific question about the Globemaster. Following the latest announcement, we will now have five. Can you tell us what percentage of the use of the Globemasters is devoted to domestic operations or the North American context, and what percentage is involved in assisting internationally? I know these are strategic airlifts and it's important for Canada to have them, but in terms of the defence of North America, is there a breakdown you can give us of the use these aircraft will be put to?

[Col David W. Lowthian]

Mr. Harris, I can't give you an exact figure offhand. I will tell you, though, that when we first got our fleet of C-17s in the 2007-08 time frame, the first two missions following the delivery of the first aircraft involved a humanitarian airlift to Jamaica, followed by our first mission into Kandahar airfield. Going into Kandahar was more or less a weekly mission during that era.

That certainly left the question of what the C-17 could bring us domestically, and we saw that expand quite quickly as we introduced that aircraft into Arctic operations. The Royal Canadian Air Force is the first air force to employ the C-17 aircraft on snow-covered gravel airstrips such as those at Resolute Bay and CFS Alert. Up until Canada procured these aircraft, Boeing had never tested that capability. Other nations hadn't employed the C-17 in that way. Our USAF partners in Alaska had not employed it in that way. So we paved the way in 2010.

Since then, that aircraft has been a great enabler to operating in Canada's north. It has had a hand in activating our FOLs. It has been an enabler for refuelling not only CFS Alert but also Inuvik and Iqaluit, when and as required.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

That's a fairly huge plane to be using as a refueller for Alert, if I may say so, but I do get the idea that it could be useful from a strategic airlift point of view in terms of operating in the north if necessary.

Mr. Chairman, I neglected to mention that my colleague Mr. Chisholm has one specific question on the Arctic. I was going to start with him and come back to me. Can I do it that way? Can I interrupt this? Is that okay with you?

[The Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

Your time can be shared.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

I was going to start with him and then come to me, but we'll leave him to the end.

I'm interested in your responsibility for search and rescue, General. The important role you play in Trenton is, as you've pointed out, for a huge area: most of Quebec, all of Ontario, the prairie provinces, and the High Arctic as far north as you can go.

I want to ask about the use of the Griffon helicopters as search and rescue aircraft. They apparently were put there temporarily in 2005, which is nine years ago.

They have about half the range of the Cormorants. They are not as capable for search and rescue at sea, and of course the Great Lakes are a major part of your area. As well, they can't really get to the Arctic very easily. You mentioned the role of 17 Wing, which has a Hercules available but not helicopters.

Are you satisfied with that, sir? The Auditor General didn't seem to be. An internal report said that they were a higher risk for pilots and crew and also much less capable, the Cormorant being able to carry 30 accident victims and the Griffon four.

What urgency do you feel exists to do something about that? We know that the government acquired from the U.S. presidential fleet nine airframes that had already flown and that the former defence minister, Mr. MacKay, ordered a study on getting them active in the spring of 2014. What progress is being made on that? Are you satisfied, you having such a huge area of responsibility with the least capable search and rescue helicopters?

[Col David W. Lowthian]

Thank you for the question, Mr. Harris.

Certainly we need a capability that possesses the range to reach into our Arctic when called on as such, which the Hercules aircraft indeed provides. It's our standby posture among our entire search and rescue capability that permits us to be as responsive as we need to be in getting the right assets in the air and ultimately the right assets on the ground to be first on scene.

Much of that expertise resides with our search and rescue technician capability. What I've witnessed and observed in my time here is that regardless of which aircraft is first on scene, it's a matter of getting that first responder, or team of first responders, on the ground. The C-130 is still a good platform to do this in reaching into Canada's Arctic. I have yet to see it have any issues in that regard.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

You're satisfied that you don't need Cormorants or the equivalent capability out of Trenton for that area. It surprises me to hear that.

I do know that in 2011 it took four days for a Cormorant to travel from Greenwood, Nova Scotia, to rescue an Inuk hunter on a ice floe in Resolute. I know that he was provided a drop-down from a Hercules, but that seems to me to be an inadequate response for the vast areas of the north that we have.

To the specific question about the availability of Cormorants or the American presidential fleet—

[The Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

Be very brief, please.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

Do you have any information on that program or project?

[Col David W. Lowthian]

No, sir, I do not.

[The Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

That's your time.

Ms. Gallant, please, for seven minutes.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Since we we're talking about helicopters, I just want to review, because some of the members haven't been on the committee as long as the issue of helicopters and search and rescue has been on the agenda. It goes back to 1997. That federal election campaign was on the cancellation of the EH-101 project.

That EH-101 had three different versions. One was for the maritime, to replace the choppers we have now on the frigates—the Sea Kings. There was a search and rescue version, and there was a utility version as well. Now we have the Cyclones that are coming into effect for our maritime needs. We have the Chinooks at Petawawa for our utility needs, and we are awaiting the search and rescue. What's important is that those three different versions of the EH-101 would have had interchangeable parts and we wouldn't be encountering the problems we see with parts regarding the Cormorant.

I'm going to talk about the C-17 as well.

A number of years ago, the military, in conjunction with Parliament, had a program whereby parliamentarians were able to familiarize themselves with the different aspects of air, land, and sea with the military. A number of us visited your wing, and we saw one of the first C-17s. At that particular time the crew as well as the pilots were being run off their feet. The complaint was that they needed more crew, more planes; they had so much demand for them.

It's good to hear that we have another C-17. However, in terms of the personnel, have we met the demands there, or are they still pressed for time? Are they getting the training they need, the time off they need? Do we have enough people to crew these C-17s?

[Col David W. Lowthian]

When was your visit to 8 Wing, ma'am?

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

I think that was 2009.

[Col David W. Lowthian]

Okay.

I was the commanding officer of 429 Squadron at that time when we brought on the entire fleet. I started with zero airplanes and ended with four.

You were probably talking to air crew, pilots, loadmasters, but also maintainers. I would argue that with any new capability that we do procure, there is the issue of achieving that balance of aircraft commander and first officer, to speak for the pilots. So the limiting factor there would be aircraft commanders. At that time, I would have had 32 pilots in total, which one would argue would be 16 crews, but if I only had 7 aircraft commanders at that time, I really only had 7 crews. I was limited by that number.

Since that time, we've maintained a fairly steep experience and training program. It was probably around 2010 or so that we achieved that ideal balance, being about 60% aircraft commanders and 40% first officers.

The same thing can be said for our loadmasters in achieving their unrestricted qualifications so they can lead a mission from the back of the aircraft when deployed. Up until that point, the restricted loadmasters have to be partnered with one who possesses those qualifications.

Lastly, with respect to our maintainers, again it was a brand new aircraft that they had to learn. Technologically speaking, a lot of the systems are computer-based, so it's finding that balance between an airframe technician and one who is smart on aircraft software.

Once we had that balance in place, we had to train them to get their qualifications. They graduate from an A-level qualification to a C-level one, and within that there are various accountabilities before they can actually sign and release an aircraft. Again, that takes time—much like the pilots, the loadmasters—to get there. I can reassure you that now, and probably since 2010-11, the qualifications, the balance, and the numbers have been quite healthy.

Adding a fifth C-17 to that fleet is not a stressor on personnel in the way it would have been in 2008-09 when you visited Trenton.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Thank you.

With respect to pilots for a C-17, are there any commercial planes where pilot skills could be transferrable to this aspect of the military? Are there pilots on other planes in the civilian world who can be trained up for the C-17s, or do you have to start from scratch with new recruits in the Canadian Forces and build them up to that point?

[Col David W. Lowthian]

I guess what's remarkable about any new aircraft now is it seems that the training technology is quite advanced, simulation especially.

Many of our pilots on the C-17 and others within our fleet are very well newly winged graduates, as we will call them, and have spent maybe two to three years in our military: basic training, language training, survival, and other courses that are required onwards to their pilot training. After their wings, they require about three and a half months with the United States Air Force where we do our training at Altus Air Force Base in Oklahoma, and they come back and they still have a restricted qualification at that point. It takes them about another 30 months or so to graduate through the various levels as a first officer to become an aircraft commander on that aircraft.

To get back to your question with regard to whether we do that with a civilian pilot, I would say that shortly after I joined as a pilot, we were taking in a lot of graduates from flying colleges and they were more or less fast-tracked through our wings training system. Rather than taking three years to get their wings they might have taken maybe half that time, including basic training, etc. Then they were able to go on to the operational training units for aircraft at that time like the C-130 Hercules and the CP-140 Aurora, etc.

[The Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

That's the end of your time.

Ms. Michaud, you have seven minutes.