Defence Department may buy helicopter cast-offs for spare parts
The Defence Department is considering buying America’s helicopter cast-offs to use for spare parts for the Canadian Air Force’s Cormorant search-and-rescue choppers. Preliminary discussions are being held on the
possible sale of the US101 helicopters to Canada. The American aircrafts are similar to Canada’s CH-149 Cormorants, which have been grounded from time to time because of a shortage of spare parts. There could be as many as eight of the helicopters available for sale by the Obama administration, since the U.S. government invested $3 billion into the helicopters and then withdrew from the program. If a deal is struck, Canada would pay significantly less than $3 billion, the Montreal Gazette reports.