On December 31st 2019, Trinidad and Tobago effectively grounded its main law-enforcement air support assets when it failed to renew contracts for the pilots and other personnel of the country’s Strategic Services Agency (SSA) Air Division.
The SSA Air Division took over the assets of the National Operations Centre Air Division which in turn inherited the assets from the Air Division of the now disbanded Special Anti-Crime Unit of Trinidad and Tobago (SAUTT). The country has made use of air support for law enforcement for the past seventeen years with considerable success.
This Air Division of the National Operations Fusion Centre of the Strategic Services Agency (SSA) bore the full brunt of the burden for the law enforcement support task. The Air Division has on strength one AS.355, two Bo-105CBS-4, one S-76A++ and one S-76D on lease. The S-76D was scheduled to be returned and the S-76A++ has not flown for some considerable time. Another AS.355 which was leased, has now been returned. However, this force is now down to two ageing Bo-105CBS-4 helicopters, of which only one is operational – the other being used as a spares source and a single AS.355F2.
With the end of its personnel contracts, the Air Division is now non-functional.
The country’s military air arm, the Trinidad and Tobago Air Guard, grounded its four AW-139 helicopters. On 29 June 2017, in an unexpected decision, especially after investing over USD348 million in the acquisition of the helicopters and the training of personnel, the government of Trinidad and Tobago decided that it could no longer afford the annual maintenance costs of the helicopters amounting to some USD29 million. A court battle led to Cobham successfully winning its claim against Trinidad for some USD 10 million for work in support of maintaining the helicopters.
Attempts to use the country’s civilian National Helicopters Services Limited (NHSL) – which currently operates six S-76C and S-76D aircraft – led to the loss of NHSL’s sole EC-135P2 in a crash on 15th May 2019 while searching for escaped convicts.
