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Ottawa set to announce helicopter, UAV lease for Afghan mission
August 7, 2008 By The Canadian Press
Aug. 7, 2008, Ottawa - The Tory government is set to announce the lease of
helicopters and unmanned survelliance planes for the Canadian
military in Afghanistan.
Aug. 7, 2008, Ottawa – The Tory government is set to announce the lease of
helicopters and unmanned survelliance planes for the Canadian
military in Afghanistan.
Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Public Works Minister Christian
Paradis will be in the Montreal area to outline the lease of up to
eight Soviet-style Mi-8 helicopters to transport battlefield
supplies in Kandahar.
It is an interim measure until the Defence Department completes
the $375 million purchase of six American-made CH-47-D Chinook
helicopters, which will be able to transport both troops and
equipment.
Securing helicopter transport was a principal condition of the
Manley commission report last winter and a key caveat of
Parliament's extension of the combat mission until 2011.
The Conservative government was given until February 2009 to come
up with the helicopters and a flight of unmanned surveillance
planes.
The announcement will also include details of a contract,
possibly worth $100 million, to lease a flight of uninhabited aerial
vehicles _ or UAVs _ from MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.
and Israeli Air Industries Ltd.
