An Airbus C-295, replete in RCAF’s Search and Rescue (SAR) colours, arrived at CFB Comox on Canada’s West Coast after a series of flights that led it from its birthplace in Seville, Spain via CFB Greenwood in Nova Scotia, CFB Trenton in Ontario and CFB Winnipeg in Manitoba. All stops were at RCAF fixed-wing SAR bases.

This particular aircraft is not completely set up like the 16 C-295s SAR versions, designated as the CC-295 by the RCAF, ordered by the federal government and currently being manufactured in Spain. It is not equipped with the mission-specific equipment required for SAR activities. Instead, this aircraft will be used to train technicians.

“It will be used to train maintenance technicians on rigging, removal and reinstallation procedures,” according to Department of National Defence spokesperson Daniel le Bouthillier. “This aircraft is to be disassembled upon arrival and be partly reassembled inside the new FWSAR (Fixed Wing Search and Rescue) training centre.” It will then be registered as a training asset and not as an aircraft.

The first SAR CC-295 is expected to arrive in Canada in the spring, with the remaining 15 aircraft expected to be delivered at a rate of five per year.

Photo credit: DND