The Dept. of National Defence plans to turn five Sea King helicopters -- which have a history of reliability problems -- into troop carriers.

In Afghanistan, Canadian troops don't have their own helicopters. The British, Americans and Dutch all do.

Ironically, the Dutch bought their Chinook helicopters from Canada about a decade ago, and are now using them in Afghanistan, where they occasionally give lifts to Canadian troops.

One defence analyst thinks that in general, this refitting could be a good idea.

"The beauty of that is you could rely on Canadian Forces pilots and Canadian Forces equipment not only to deploy troops but more significantly in some cases to deploy reinforcements and to bring back casualties if you had those," said Col. Michel Drapeau (ret'd).

However, the five Sea Kings to be refitted first went into use in 1970 and were acquired mainly for anti-submarine warfare.

Thirty-six years after their acquisition, Drapeau has doubts about whether they can be made suitable for new missions.

"The Sea King has got a reputation as being an unreliable piece of equipment that has basically outlived its useful life," he said.

The aircraft have the grim nickname within the military -- "flying coffins." There have been at least 14 Sea King crashes since they were introduced four decades ago. Four of them were fatal.

Military sources tell CTV News the Sea Kings could be used in Afghanistan, but most will likely end up providing ship-to-shore troop transport from naval ships.

NDP defence critic Dawn Black used the refitting to blast both the Tories and Liberals.

"What it points to is years of inaction by both previous Conservative governments and Liberal governments to insure our military personnel have adequate and safe equipment," she said.

Drapeau echoed part of that sentiment, saying, "The men and women in uniform have to get the sense of confidence that the equipment the Canadian public is providing them is the best money can buy."

The refits are expected to cost $5.5 million and are intended to be an interim measure. New helicopters for the army aren't due to arrive until 2008.

With a report from CTV's David Akin