| 430 Tactical Helicopter Squadron | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Active | 1943–1945 1951–1970 1971–Present |
| Country |  Canada |
| Branch |  Royal Canadian Air Force |
| Role | Tactical Helicopter |
| Nicknames | City of Sudbury Silver Falcon |
| Mottos | Celeriter certoque (Swiftly and surely) |
| Battle honours | Fortress Europe 1943-1944 France and Germany 1944-1945 Normandy 1944 Arnhem Rhine Afghanistan[1] |
430 Tactical Helicopter Squadron is a unit of theCanadian Forces under theRoyal Canadian Air Force. It operatesBell CH-146 Griffons fromCFB Valcartier, nearQuebec City inQuebec,Canada.
No. 430 Squadron RCAF was a unit of theRoyal Canadian Air Force formed duringWorld War II as the "City of Sudbury" squadron in 1943. Initially created as an army co-operation squadron, 430 was redesignated as a fighter reconnaissance unit later that year. The unit was stationed in England, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany, and flew photo reconnaissance missions in support of planning for theNormandy landings. After D-Day, missions included before-and-after photography of attacks onV-1 flying bomb launch sites and support for ground forces. 430 Squadron was disbanded in Germany in August 1945.[2]
In theCold War period, the squadron was reformed in November 1951 atRCAF Station North Bay, flying theCanadair F-86 Sabre. It was given the nicknameSilver Falcon.430 Fighter Squadron went to 2 WingRCAF Station Grostenquin nearGrostenquin, France in September 1952. The squadron was located at Grostenquin until deactivation in September 1962.[2]
430 Fighter Squadron was reactivated at 3 WingZweibrücken, West Germany in February 1963, and transitioned to theCanadair CF-104 Starfighter. The squadron moved to 1 WingLahr, West Germany in February 1969 until it was disbanded in May 1970.[2]
The unit reformed again in 1971 as a French-languageCanadian Forces tactical helicopter squadron at Valcartier and known officially as430e Escadron tactique d'hélicoptères. There it operated theBell CH-136 Kiowa and theBell CH-135 Twin Huey in support of5 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group. The unit transitioned to theCH-146 Griffon in 1994.[3]
The squadron was deployed as part of theUnited Nations Mission in Haiti (UNMIH) and also provided core personnel to the Rotary Wing Aviation Unit of theMultinational Force and Observers on peacekeeping operations in theSinai.[3]
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1Aircraft administered and serviced by the RCAF but crewed by theRoyal Canadian Artillery. 2 Non-standard code as unit using OW added L. Letters normally denoted parent Command, aircraft type (LLiberator transport, DDakota etc), unit, and individual aircraft. 3 VC .svg) XXA where VC was the civil code used by the RCAF replacing CF-, XX was the unit code and A was the aircraft ID letter4 XX nnn where XX was the unit code and nnn was the last 3 digits of the serial number. Unit code was replaced with "RCAF" in 1958 | |||||||||||||||||||||||