OTTAWA—Senior National Defence and Public Works officials have informally asked rival aircraft makers if they can step in to pick up the pieces if the troubled CH-148 Cyclone helicopter program is cancelled, The Canadian Press has learned.

The attempt to chart a new course for the long-delayed Sea King replacement program took place in Ottawa on Thursday at an unusual meeting that involved not only government officials and executives of AgustaWestland and NH Industries, but also Cyclone manufacturer Sikorsky.

The companies were told the military needs a maritime helicopter capability, and the government has instructed officials to develop a backup plan, said multiple sources with knowledge of the meeting.

Each company, including Sikorsky, was handed an abbreviated set of requirements, asked whether their aircraft could meet the criteria and told to respond within three weeks.

Sikorsky has been under contract since 2004 to deliver 28 helicopters to replace Canada’s 50-year-old Sea Kings fleet.

Thus far, however, only four “test” Cyclones have arrived at the military air base in Shearwater, N.S.

The Harper government has made it clear it’s looking at options “other” than the Cyclone, even sending an air force team to Britain in the summer to check out the Royal Navy HM-1 Merlin helicopters built by AgustaWestland.

NH Industries, which was representing Eurocopter at the meeting, was asked about its NH-90 chopper.

Sikorsky was also asked for information about its other maritime helicopter, the MH-60 Sea Hawk, which is in service with the U.S. Navy.

No one from the Department of Public Works was immediately available for comment Friday. No decision has yet been made to scrap the Cyclone program, the sources insisted.

But critics, including defence expert Michael Byers, are wondering what the government is waiting for — and why it is has taken so long to shut down a program that’s clearly not working.

“This reflects a systematic lack of oversight on the part of our elected representatives because this is a procurement that has been in trouble for a very long time,” said Byers, a University of British Columbia professor who has studied the Cyclone woes.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

The government and Sikorsky have been engaged in a public tug-of-war over when a final version of the helicopter would be ready for service, despite two contract extensions and more money for engine improvements.

If the Conservatives were to cancel the Cyclone in favour of the Merlin, it would bring a 20-year-old political decision full circle.

In the early 1990s, Brian Mulroney’s government ordered 50 EH-101s to replace the air force’s Sea Kings, but the deal was cancelled by Jean Chretien’s Liberals shortly after they were elected in 1993.

It was Paul Martin’s Liberal government that signed the Cyclone deal with Sikorsky for $3.2 billion — a figure that has since ballooned to $5.7 billion. The aircraft were supposed to be in service by 2008.

So far, Sikorsky has accrued $88.6 million in liquidated damages for its failure to meet the contract.

Last spring, former public works minister Rona Ambrose asked for an independent analysis of whether Sikorsky could deliver what it promised. That analysis, completed at the end of August, recommended the government decide within 90 days whether to dump the Cyclones.