10 Hercules aircraft sold to Port Alberni company for aerial firefighting - Port Alberni Valley News
Published 11:51 am Friday, August 7, 2026The federal government has announced the conditional sale of 10 retired military aircraft to a Port Alberni company to be converted for aerial firefighting efforts. The. . .
Published 11:51 am Friday, August 7, 2026The federal government has announced the conditional sale of 10 retired military aircraft to a Port Alberni company to be converted for aerial firefighting efforts. The announcement was made Friday (Aug. 7) at Cascade Aerospace in Abbotsford by Kelowna MP Stephen Fuhr, secretary of state for defence procurement. The 10 CC-130H Hercules aircraft are among a fleet of 12 that were retired by the Royal Canadian Air Force in January of this year. The remaining two retired aircraft will be publicly displayed at bases and museums across the country. Fuhr said the aircraft have been sold to Coulson Aviation, pending the completion of contractual arrangements and applicable Transport Canada regulatory approvals. He said “a lot of other entities” were interested in purchasing the aircraft. “Offers for these aircraft were evaluated on a number of things (including) the proposed end use, the alignment with the public interest, logistics, custodial cost efficiencies, compliance with applicable regulations, and the best overall value to Canada,” Fuhr said. He said each aircraft will require approximately 20,000 hours of labour to be converted for firefighting use. He said the planes are “urgently needed” for aerial firefighting across Canada. The companies that Coulson will partner with for the process include Cascade in Abbotsford and Kelowna Flightcraft, Fuhr said. The sale is being coordinated through GCMil, a group within Public Services and Procurement that sells surplus military assets on behalf of National Defence. Specifics of the sale are confidential. The announcement was made in Abbotsford preceding the opening of the Abbotsford International Airshow, which runs Friday to Sunday (August. 7-9).