Shearwater Heliport, formerly known as Canadian Forces Base Shearwater and commonly referred to as CFB Shearwater and formerly named HMCS Shearwater, is a Canadian Forces facility located east southeast of Shearwater, Nova Scotia, on the eastern shore of Halifax Harbour in the Halifax Regional Municipality. Following a base rationalization program in the mid-1990s, the Canadian Forces closed CFB Shearwater as a separate Canadian Forces base and realigned the property's various facilities into CFB Halifax. These include:
Shearwater Heliport, which is operated by the Royal Canadian Air Force. The primary RCAF lodger unit is 12 Wing, commonly referred to as 12 Wing Shearwater. 12 Wing provides maritime helicopter operations in support of the Royal Canadian Navy's Atlantic Fleet (MARLANT) from the Shearwater Heliport and Pacific Fleet (MARPAC) from the Patricia Bay Heliport in British Columbia. 12 Wing is also headquartered at Shearwater Heliport. Shearwater Jetty, the former CFB Shearwater Annex, which provides dock facilities in support of Fleet Diving Unit Atlantic and MARLANT warships.
History
1918–1939
Shearwater is the second-oldest military aerodrome in Canada. In August 1918 the US Navy established Naval Air Station Halifax, or NAS Halifax, at Baker Point on the shores of Eastern Passage to conduct anti-submarine air patrols. Lieutenant Richard E. Byrd was Officer-in-Charge US Naval Air Force in Canada, with six Curtiss HS-2L flying boats operating from NAS Halifax and six from NAS Sydney. Naval air operations in Nova Scotia were intended to be taken over by the Royal Canadian Naval Air Service (RCNAS), but the war ended before the RCNAS could train sufficient personnel.
Following the end of the First World War, the United States Navy gifted its aircraft and flying facilities in Nova Scotia to the Canadian government. The six aircraft at Sydney were shipped to Halifax for storage and the buildings sold at auction. One of the five stations established by the Flying Operations Branch of the Canadian Air Board during their first season of operations in 1920 was the Dartmouth Air Station at the former NAS Halifax. Initially, the station's primary role was overhauling the HS-2L flying boats and dispatching them by air or rail to other stations, where they formed the backbone of civil government flying operations for several years.
In addition to serving as the main repair and overhaul depot for the Air Board's HS-2L flying boats, the Dartmouth Air Station also conducted flying operations. In most years the station flew fewer hours than the other Air Board stations, though some aerial photography operations, surveys, and exercises with the Royal Canadian Navy were carried out each year.
Following the cancellation of part-time training for military pilots on 31 March 1922, the Air Board restructured its flying operations, merging the Flying Operations Branch into the Canadian Air Force in June. Changes to the organization of the air stations were deferred to the fall to avoid administrative issues during the flying season. On 25 November 1922 the Dartmouth Air Station was renamed C.A.F. Unit Dartmouth and the civilian personnel were commissioned or enlisted into the Canadian Air Force. The name changed again when the Canadian Air Force was granted the royal prefix effective 13 March 1923, becoming RCAF Unit Dartmouth, then RCAF Station Dartmouth in early October. None of these changes, nor the official formation of the Royal Canadian Air Force on 1 April 1924, substantially altered the role of the station.
Though the scale of flying operations had increased substantially in 1923 and 1924, the year-round maintenance operations did not continue after the winter of 1923–24. At the end of the 1924 flying season the station was placed on "care and maintenance" with only a skeleton staff to maintain the buildings. The station re-opened in the late spring of 1925 to resume photographic survey operations and artillery co-operation exercises. In July 1925, retroactive to 1 April, all the RCAF's civil operations stations were re-designated as numbered squadrons, with Dartmouth becoming No. 4 (Operations) Squadron.