Canadair CL-415 CL-415MP

The CL-415MP, where MP stands for Multi Purpose, is the version of the CL-415 aimed at missions other than firefighting: maritime patrol, search and rescue (SAR), transport and coastal surveillance. It is the only variant of the family conceived for sustained paramilitary use. According to the English-language source, the multi-role model was offered for a paramilitary search and rescue role and for utility transport, while the French source details the optional equipment: surveillance radars, forward-looking infrared detectors, side-looking radars, advanced navigation systems and powerful communications equipment.

The rationale for the variant rests on the amphibious nature of the airframe. A CL-415 can operate from runways or from the water surface, which makes it particularly suited to maritime rescue: as the Italian source recalls, modern SAR helicopters such as the HH-60J cannot alight on the water to recover survivors and rely exclusively on the hoist, whereas the amphibian can set down alongside the vessel. The French source describes the CL-415MP as adapted to long-range amphibious missions, with the possibility of landing on the water for a rescue, for the apprehension of offenders or for tracking oil slicks.

Only three aircraft of the MP variant were built. Two went to the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, which ordered them in 2008; according to the Italian source, the first was delivered in December of that year and the second in November 2009. In the French source's table of users, Malaysia is listed with two aircraft delivered and two in service, both of the CL-415MP version. The third went to Greece, whose Air Force combines within its fleet of ten delivered CL-415s the basic version, the higher-weight CL-415GR and one CL-415MP.

According to manufacturer data quoted by the Italian source, by January 2009 69 examples of the 415 had been delivered worldwide including the MP version, which places the production of the MPs in the final stretch of the programme's life, before the line closed in October 2015.

The variant's record includes one loss. On 23 July 2007 a Hellenic Air Force CL-415 crashed while fighting a fire on the island of Euboea; the pilot and co-pilot were killed. The English-language source identifies the aircraft, serial number 2055, as a CL-415MP, whereas the French and Italian sources record it as a 415 without specifying the version. The French table of users still counts one CL-415MP in service in Greece, alongside six CL-415GRs and three aircraft lost in total, so the exact identification of the crashed aircraft remains a discrepancy between sources that could not be resolved with the material available.

The multi-mission approach of the CL-415MP did not disappear with the end of CL-415 production. When Viking Air acquired the programme in 2016 and designed the CL-515 successor, the CL-215 source records that the new aircraft was to be able to fill other roles outside the fire season, such as maritime surveillance and maritime search and rescue; and the letter of intent signed by Indonesia in June 2019 included, according to the French source, four aircraft in multi-mission version and two as water bombers. The idea of the patrolling amphibian, tried with only three airframes in the CL-415MP, is thus one of the legacies taken up by the DHC-515.