For Canadians…

With the new planned purchase of CH-47Fs for the Canadian Armed Forces, which will probably end up being more like MH-47E/Gs with the specific needs the Canadian DND will require, (CAF designated CH-147) it will find itself needing and armed reconnasaince helo for Canadas extensive role in Afghanistan. My question to you guys is what should the Canadian Forces do to fulfill that requirement? As of now, the Canadian Army uses the CH-146 Griffon which is a Bell 412 (inbetween a UH-1N Twin Huey and a UH-1Y Venom) It can carry up to 2 .50 cals on the door gunner ports, but that is hardly an armed recon/escort or close support chopper! or in its SAR role

1.1MY QUESTION to you guys is, what should we do about this? Should we take a handful of our CH-146 Griffons, slap some kevlar seats, add some armoured floor panels, NOSE mount the E/O pod (instead of a side mount as stanadard right now) get rid of that goofy search light and put 2.75″ zuni rocket or 7.62mm gun pods or a combo of both and booom, instant combat support aircraft, something like this …

1.2OR should we go along the lines of an armed Kiowa like the Canadians USED to operate although the Canadians do not use the Kiowa anymore, they use a training civilian version called the CH-139 ‘Jet Ranger’ which in my mind wouldn’t be to hard to convert or should we just go ahead and get a brand new chopper like the Tiger or a crazy nutty version of the Blackhawk like MH-60L DAP or something like that??? I would love to hear what we should do from you guys…