February 12, 2018 | Local, Aerospace
It will be 2022 before the Royal Canadian Air Force receives all of the used Australian fighter jets the Liberal government intends to purchase, says senior defence official.
The plan was rolled out with much fanfare at the end of last year because the air force has faced — in the words of Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan — an "urgent capability gap" and is not able to meet its NATO and Norad commitments at the same time.
Pat Finn, who is in charge of the materiale branch of National Defence, told CBC News in a recent interview a final agreement is still months away.
He is confident, however, everything will come together.
Delivery is "staggered over three years," Finn said.
The Trudeau government announced in December it would buy 18 used Australian "classic" FA-18s as an interim measure to bolster the air force until the entire Canadian fleet of CF-18s is replaced, beginning in the mid-2020s.
It had wanted to buy brand new Boeing Super Hornets, the newer, bigger, more advanced version of the FA-18 and CF-18. The plan was scuttled when the manufacturer, Chicago-based Boeing, filed a trade complaint against Canadian aerospace giant Bombardier.
No price tag for the Australian deal was released at the time of the formal announcement, which was made by Sajjan and Public Works Minister Carla Qualtrough.
Finn said those details are still being worked out.
The Liberal government said in December the first used fighters, which were purchased by Australia around the same Canada bought its CF-18s, would arrive by January 2019.
Finn said the delivery schedule is being finalized, but he anticipates receiving the first two warplanes by the summer of that year.
Another one would follow by the end of the year, but much depends on the Royal Australian Air Force and how quickly it retires the fighters and the age of what's being offered.
"They, of course, release aircraft as they get aircraft," Finn said. "We do not necessarily want the oldest aircraft, so we would like to have an ongoing discussion."
He said there is some flexibility and if "summer '19 turns into" something a few months later because they can get a better jet, then it's something that can be negotiated.
The Australian government is in the process of seeking permission to sell the planes because they were originally manufactured in the U.S.
Once the Australian warplanes arrive in Canada, they will need to be given life-extension modifications that will bring them up to the standard of the CF-18s, which have been modified to continuing flying until 2025.
It stands in stark contrast to the urgency with which the Liberals initially painted the shortage of fighter aircraft.
"In 2025, the CF-18s will not be able to fly, and it is important that we move very quickly in filling this capability gap." said Sajjan in June 2016.
Finn said the air force is managing the capability gap by making more CF-18s available for operations on a daily basis.
"We're basically working right now to increase the availability of our current airplanes," he said.
Experts say that would mean pouring more than expected into the maintenance budget in order to keep fighters on the flight line.
One defence analyst said the government has a strange definition of urgent.
"Nothing about the handling of this file lines up with the identification of it as an urgent need, either the interim or the permanent purchase," said Dave Perry, an expert in procurement at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute.
He said he believes it will present a political headache for the Liberals come the next election.
"The fact that this government may, at best, have a couple of second-hand aircraft before the next election after having identified an urgent need to acquire new fighter aircraft is just incredible," he said.
When the Australian deal was announced, the government also laid out a timeline for the full replacement of the CF-18s, which were purchased in the 1980s, but extensively modified and upgraded in the early 2000s.
Public Works recently held a consultation day with defence contractors, but Perry says no one seems to understand why it will take until the early 2020s to launch the competition.
When the former Conservative government was struggling over whether to buy the F-35 stealth fighter, it conducted extensive research on the alternatives and possible types of warplanes Canada would need.
That research, which conceivable could move things along faster, was largely discarded by the Liberals and is gathering dust on a shelf, Perry says.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/aussie-fighter-jets-1.4530875
April 6, 2022 | Local, Aerospace
The Canadian government is starting final talks with Lockheed Martin to buy F-35 fighter jets. But questions remain about cost and what the jet brings to the table for Canada.
October 21, 2018 | Local, Naval
DAVID PUGLIESE, OTTAWA CITIZEN The Canadian Surface Combatant project will see the Halifax-based Irving build 15 warships, which will form the backbone of the future Royal Canadian Navy The Canadian government has selected a consortium closely linked to Irving Shipbuilding to provide it with a new warship design for the most expensive defence project the country has ever seen. Canada announced Friday it had chosen the Type 26 warship design by British defence firm BAE for the $60-billion program to replace the Royal Canadian Navy's Halifax-class frigates. Lockheed Martin Canada is leading the BAE consortium and will be the prime contractor. The group's win had been anticipated since 2016, however, after rival defence firms raised concerns that the competition had been rigged in favour of the British design. The Canadian Surface Combatant project will see the Halifax-based Irving Shipbuilding build 15 warships, which will form the backbone of the future Royal Canadian Navy. It will be the largest and most complex procurement in Canadian history. However, it is seen as a major departure from previous procurement processes, as Irving is playing a significant role in selecting the winning design. The previous federal procurement minister, Judy Foote, had said only mature existing designs or designs of ships already in service would be accepted for the bidding process, on the grounds they could be built faster and would be less risky — unproven designs can face challenges as problems are found once the vessel is in the water and operating. But the Liberal government and Irving accepted the BAE design into the process, though at the time it existed only on the drawing board. Construction began on the first Type 26 frigate in the summer of 2017 for Britain's Royal Navy, but it has not yet been completed. Both Irving and the federal government have insisted the procurement was being conducted in a way that ensures all bidders are treated equally, overseen by a fairness monitor with no unfair advantage given to any individual bidder. Nonetheless, while three consortiums submitted bids for the surface combatant program, several European shipbuilders decided against participating because of concerns about the fairness of the process. Others raised concerns about BAE's closeness with the Halifax firm. Last year a French-Italian consortium also declined to formally submit a bid and instead offered Canada a fleet of vessels at a fixed price. Officials with Fincantieri of Italy and Naval Group of France said they don't believe the procurement process as it is currently designed will be successful. The federal government, however, rejected the deal. The federal government had to remind Irving about the potential for conflict of interest when the firm joined forces with BAE in late 2016 to bid on a multi-billion dollar contract to provide maintenance and support for the navy's new Arctic patrol and supply ships. The Irving-BAE alliance was not successful in that bid, but it led the government to remind Irving it had an obligation to “ensure that the Canadian Surface Combatant competition is conducted in a manner that is free from real or perceived conflicts of interest,” according to February 2017 documents prepared for defence minister Harjit Sajjan and released to the Conservatives under the Access to Information law. Andre Fillion, assistant deputy minister for defence and marine procurement at Public Services and Procurement Canada, said Friday's decision is not a contract award. “It's an important step to getting to contract award in the coming months,” he said. Negotiations will now begin with Lockheed Martin. if negotiations proceed accordingly a contract is expected to be signed sometime between January and March 2019. But Fillion said if there are issues with those negotiations and an agreement is not reached, the government will then turn to the next highest-ranked bidder. The government has declined to identify that firm, but the other bidders were from the U.S. and Spain. The Canadian Surface Combatant program has already faced delays and rising costs. In 2008 the then-Conservative government estimated the project would cost roughly $26 billion. But in 2015, Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, then commander of the navy, voiced concern that taxpayers may not have been given all the information about the program, publicly predicting the cost for the warships alone would approach $30 billion. https://ottawacitizen.com/news/british-design-selected-for-canadas-60b-warship-replacement-program-amid-concerns-about-winners-links-to-irving/
January 8, 2019 | Local, Security
David Pugliese, Ottawa Citizen The Defence Department has cut down on its use of rodents and pigs for research and experiments but says realistic instruction for its medical personnel still requires live animals to be wounded during training and later killed. In 2018 the department used 882 animals, such as mice, rats and pigs, for training and experimentation, down from the 4,000 animals used in 2009, according to figures provided by the Department of National Defence and government records obtained by Postmedia. The animals are used by Defence Research and Development Canada for assessment of emerging chemical and biological threats and by military personnel for what is known as “live tissue training,” according to a 2016 briefing for Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jon Vance. In such a scenario the animals are anesthetized and then wounded. Military medical staff treat the wounds in order to gain experience. After the training the animals are killed. “The Department of National Defence currently uses live tissue where necessary to provide advanced military medical training for specific operational requirements,” the department stated in an email to Postmedia. But the DND is trying to reduce the use of animals as much as possible by using different experimental techniques and making use of simulators that can replicate a human patient, according to the 2016 briefing note. That has allowed for the drop to 2,000 animals in 2015 from 4,000 in 2009, the documents noted. “The life-saving experiences, confidence and skills acquired by our young medical technicians using live tissue remain critical components of their curriculum,” Vance was told. Various animal rights groups have been trying over the years to convince the DND and Canadian Forces to stop any kind of testing on animals and to use the simulators instead. The Animal Alliance of Canada has an on-going letter-writing campaign to try to convince Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan to put an end to using animals. The organization noted that Canada is one of the few NATO nations that continues to use animals. Most NATO countries are using high-tech simulators which, unlike animals, accurately mimic human physiology and anatomy. In its response to Postmedia the DND stated that it is “actively working to assess and validate the effectiveness of simulation technologies as part of our objective to find equal or superior alternatives to live tissue training in casualty care training.” It noted that Health Canada regulations stipulate that new drugs or medical techniques can't be used on humans without going through pre-clinical trials “that scientifically test their efficacy and toxicity using non-human models.” The Canadian military has a long history of experimenting on animals, exposing them to various chemical and biological warfare agents and more recently developed weapons. In the 1980s the use of animals became controversial after details of a number of military experiments were made public. Monkeys were used at defence facilities in Suffield, Alta., for experiments involving nerve gas antidotes. In 1983 researchers at the University of Ottawa made headlines after their experiments for the DND on dogs became known. Twenty specifically bred beagles were exposed to high levels of radiation to make them vomit. They were then killed and their organs removed for study. The DND research was aimed at finding a cure for nausea. In 2012, Defence Research and Development Canada subcontracted testing of a new taser projectile to a U.S. university. The projectiles were fired at pigs, according to documents obtained by Postmedia outlining experiments on “conducted energy weapons.” That same year, a study in the journal Military Medicine revealed that Canada was only one of six NATO countries still using animals in its experiments. dpugliese@postmedia.com Twitter.com/davidpugliese https://nationalpost.com/news/defence-department-still-experimenting-on-animals-but-numbers-have-been-reduced