BC firm awarded $5.7M deal to build portable Chinook maintenance shelters
by Dan Ilika
Contract awarded to Weatherhaven part of $1.2-billion military helicopter project
BURNABY, B.C.—Shelter maker Weatherhaven has been awarded a $5.7-million sub-contract by Boeing to provide portable maintenance shelters for the Canadian military’s new Chinook helicopters.
Announced by Associate Minister of National Defence Kerry-Lynne, the deal is part of Canada’s medium-to-heavy lift helicopter project.
Weatherhaven, of Burnaby, B.C., will make made-in-Canada portable repair and maintenance shelters for the CH-147 Chinook helicopters set to be delivered to the Royal Canadian Air Force.
According to the Department of Defence, the portable shelters can be trucked or airlifted to locations in the field.
The sub-contract is part of the government’s $1.2-billion contract awarded to Boeing in 2009 for the purchase of 15 medium-to-heavy lift Chinook F-model helicopters.
The new Chinooks will be used in a wide variety of roles, from transporting equipment, troops and supplies within a theatre of operations, to the evacuation of people from the scene of a natural disaster.
The first Chinook is expected to arrive in June 2013.
The helicopters will be based at Canadian Forces Base Petawawa, in eastern Ontario.
