On the availability of the CH149 Cormorant fleet

The CH149 Cormorant is the Canadian Forces (CF) designation for the AgustaWestland EH101, the Canadian Air Force¿s only dedicated search and rescue (SAR) helicopter. Since its procurement, the availability for operations of the CH149 fleet has been less than what was initially predicted. This study was undertaken to determine if the low service-ability of the fleet was due to its maintenance programme. A discrete-event simulation model was created to determine the number of aircraft available at any given time during a simulation run, assuming an ideal sparing situation. Analysis indicates that the current fleet cannot operate from four (or even three) main operating bases (MOBs) in an ideal sparing situation, implying that the fleet¿s availability problem cannot theoretically be solved simply by addressing the logistical problem of the spares.