Canada to send Griffon attack helicopters to Afghanistan
Last Updated: Wednesday, November 26, 2008 | 6:10 PM ET
CBC News
Specially modified helicopter gunships will escort Canada's new Chinook transport helicopters on operations in Afghanistan when they come into service in the new year, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Wednesday.
The eight specially modified CH-146 Griffon utility helicopters will be equipped with large machine-guns and sensors.
They will escort and protect six new CH-47 Chinooks, heavy-lift choppers already stationed at the Kandahar airfield.
"This is going to give us increased … aerial capacity, it will also save lives," MacKay said.
"If we have people not travelling on roads, being able to get to forward operating bases and other parts outside the wire, this is absolutely going to impact on our operational ability in theatre."
Big transport helicopters such as Chinooks are vulnerable to attack by ground fire and rocket-propelled grenades when operating in war zones and usually travel with smaller, armed cousins along for protection.
The military didn't indicate whether the Griffons will be outfitted with missiles, or if they'll be limited to an escort role.
"[The helicopters] can be used for other purposes as well, but that's its primary purpose," MacKay said.
Some, however, have raised concerns the Griffons could be used to launch aerial attacks.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly decried NATO's use of aerial bombings because of the high risk of civilian casualties, saying as recently as yesterday that such attacks by international military forces must end.
Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh also expressed concern Wednesday, calling on the military to rule out any attack role for the new choppers.
"We need to put absolute restrictions on these escort helicopters…they cannot be used for attack purposes. They should be purely for defensive purposes, for escorting," he said.
As many as 250 more Canadian troops will be sent to Afghanistan to maintain and fly the Griffons.
Previously, the Defence Department was planning to ask other NATO forces to fill the protection role for the transport helicopters, which cost $282 million.
The previous chief of defence staff, Gen. Rick Hillier, had rejected a role for the Griffons in Afghanistan, saying they didn't perform well in the hot and high-altitude environment.
The air force has long wanted to send the Griffons into battle, however.
So far, they have been used for transport, reconnaissance and rescue during the Saguenay and Winnipeg floods, the Quebec ice storm and international relief operations in Honduras and Haiti.
Hillier retired from his post in July and was replaced by Gen. Walter Natynczyk.
link here... 
, but the CF should really take a page out of our CAS playbook. We invented it, and we have perfected it. 
