,
Vietnam, November 1965 In late 1965, one of the prototype DHC-5s operated by the
U.S. Army was deployed to
Bien Hoa Air Base in
South Vietnam for a three-month evaluation period, assigned to the 2nd Flight Platoon of the
92nd Aviation Company. The
Royal Canadian Air Force first acquired 15 DHC-5A designated as
CC-115 for tactical transports. These were initially operated at CFB St Hubert, QC by
No. 429 Squadron in a tactical aviation role as part of Mobile Command. In 1970, the Buffalo aircraft were transferred to a transport and rescue role with
No. 442 Squadron,
No. 413 Squadron and
No. 424 Squadron as part of Transport Command.
No. 426 Squadron also flew the aircraft for training. Some were leased back or loaned back to the factory for trials and eventually returned to military service. Three of the aircraft were also deployed on UN missions to the
Middle East with No. 116 Transport Unit until 1979. They had a white paint scheme which was retained while they were serving in domestic transport with 424 Sqn in between deployments. On 9 August 1974,
Canadian Forces CC-115 Buffalo 115461 was shot down by a
Syrian
surface-to-air missile, killing all nine CF personnel on board. This represents the single biggest loss of Canadian lives on a UN mission as well as the most recent Canadian military aircraft to be shot down. Production of the
DHC-5A ended in 1972 after sales to
Brazil and
Peru but restarted with the
DHC-5D model in 1974. This variant sold to several overseas air forces beginning with
Egypt. Production of the DHC-5D ended in December 1986. In 1975, the Buffalo dropped its tactical transport role and was converted to domestic search and rescue, except for a few that kept serving on UN missions. The initial paint scheme for the SAR converted aircraft were white and red while others still had the original drab paint. The previous drab paint and white paint were eventually replaced with the distinctive yellow and red scheme commonly seen today. The number of aircraft have been reduced to eight, with six on active service, one in storage (recently dismantled) and one used for battle damage training. The remaining operational Buffalos operate in the
Search and Rescue role for No. 442 Squadron at
CFB Comox. Air Command was renamed the
Royal Canadian Air Force in 2011, meaning the CC-115 has served with the RCAF, Air Command and now the RCAF once again. The Buffalo was replaced by the
CC-130 Hercules aircraft at search-and-rescue bases in
CFB Greenwood and
CFB Trenton. As early as 2002, Canada has tried to replace both the Buffalo fleet and the SAR Hercules fleet with a newer aircraft. For some time, the Alenia C-27J Spartan was seen as the likely replacement, with the government considering sole-sourcing the new aircraft. However, after changes in Canada's defence budget as well as accusations of bias from the aerospace industry, the Buffalo replacement program was relaunched as an open competition. After review from the National Research Council, the Department of National Defence as well as consultation with the Canadian aerospace industry, a request for proposal was published in 2015. Bidders included
Alenia offering the
C-27J Spartan,
Airbus Defence and Space with its
C-295 and
Embraer with its
KC-390. In 2016, the Department of National Defence awarded Airbus a contract for 16 C-295s with delivery scheduled to begin in 2019 and running through 2022. The last operational aircraft is preserved at
Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa. ==Demonstrators for new technologies==