Griffon Fleet Reaches Major Milestone

The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) recently celebrated a major milestone as the CH-146 Griffon aircraft fleet surpassed 500,000 flight hours.

The CAF introduced the CH-146 Griffon into service between 1995 and 1998.  To date, it is the largest and best equipped fleet of militarized Bell 412s worldwide.  A variant of the Bell 412EP, 100 helicopters produced by Bell in Mirabel (Qc) were procured to fulfill four different roles.  Over the years, the Griffon has deployed to multiple locations around the world such as Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, East Timor, Honduras, the Philippines, Afghanistan and Mali on humanitarian relief missions, peacekeeping duties (United Nations) and when required, combat operations as part of NATO.  At home, the CH-146 has been used extensively to support civilian authorities (floods and fires), search-and-rescue operations, counter-drug missions and to deliver security during summits and major events such as the Olympics.

In 2022, the Government of Canada announced the Griffon Limited Life Extension (GLLE) project to modernize 85 aircraft and earlier this year, BTCL selected Alpine Aerotech LP and Heli-One Canada ULC as partners for this undertaking.  With an unmatched level of Canadian industry participation, GLLE will allow the Griffon to remain the backbone of Canadian Tactical Aviation well into the future.   

For nearly four decades, our team in Canada has been designing, assembling, delivering and sustaining state-of-the-art vertical take-off solutions as the demand for Canadian-built helicopters continues to grow.