Canada began to seek a replacement for the Sea King maritime helicopter in 1986 when it issued a solicitation for the New Shipborne Aircraft (NSA) Project.

[6] On 23 November 2004, Canada's Department of National Defence announced the award of a CA$1.8 billion contract to Sikorsky to produce 28 helicopters, with deliveries scheduled to start in January 2009.

[7] In addition, Sikorsky's subcontractors, General Dynamics Canada and L-3 MAS are responsible for in-service maintenance and the Maritime Helicopter Training Centre including two Operational Mission Simulators.

[12] Additional complications in the program, and restrictions from US government International Traffic in Arms Regulations delayed initial aircraft deliveries until 2010.

[15] In September 2013, the Canadian government announced that they were reevaluating the CH-148 purchase, and would examine cancelling the contract and ordering different helicopters if that were the better option;[16] by this point, Sikorsky had accrued over $88 million in late damages since 2008.

[17] In June 2014, it was announced that the Canadian government had removed the mandatory requirement from Sikorsky to supply the CH-148 with a 30-minute run-dry main gearbox.

However, oil loss in the main gearbox followed by several other factors caused the 2009 crash of a S-92, a civil version of the helicopter, off the coast of Newfoundland.

Unlike the Sea King, but in common with almost all current production naval helicopters, the Cyclone is not amphibious and cannot float on water.

A number of safety features such as flaw tolerance, bird strike capability and engine burst containment have been incorporated into the design.

In April 2009 the Government of Canada waived late fees and allowed Sikorsky two additional years to deliver compliant Cyclones.

Due to delays and export restrictions, the first 19 of the 28 CH-148 Cyclones were to be delivered in an interim standard which does not meet the original contract requirements.

On 3 March 2011, the federal government announced that it would impose a fine of up to CA$8 million on Sikorsky for failure to meet contractual obligations.

[39] In January 2012 it was reported Sikorsky would deliver five training CH-148s in 2012, including one "fully mission capable" CH-148 by June 2012, or face a further possible $80 million in contract penalties.

[40] On 10 July 2012 in reference to Sikorsky missing another delivery deadline, Defence Minister Peter MacKay called the Cyclone purchase "the worst procurement in the history of Canada".

[50] In July 2018, the RCAF announced that the Cyclone was assigned to a Canadian deployment as part of Operation Reassurance, with one helicopter leaving Canada on board HMCS Ville de Québec.

[1] In December 2021, the RCAF found cracks on the tails of 19 of the 23 CH-148s which had been delivered, leaving only 2 CH-148s without defects (the other 2 were already in long-term maintenance and had not been inspected), compromising Operation Lentus.