January 30, 2018 | Local, Aerospace
Lee Berthiaume, The Canadian Press
Published Monday, January 29, 2018 2:03PM EST
Last Updated Monday, January 29, 2018 4:31PM EST
OTTAWA -- Six years after his explosive report on the F-35 derailed the Harper government's plan to buy the controversial stealth aircraft, federal auditor general Michael Ferguson is diving back into the fighter-jet file.
Ferguson's staff have been going over internal government records for several months, though the auditor general's office won't reveal exactly what aspects of the program are under the microscope.
The final report is scheduled for release in the fall.
Ferguson's last report on fighter jets in April 2012 was a bombshell which found senior defence officials twisted rules, downplayed problems and withheld information about the Harper government's plan to buy 65 F-35s.
The report forced the government to suspend the project pending a complete review, which eventually pegged the full cost of buying and operating the F-35s at more than $45 billion.
Six years later, Canada still has not chosen a new fighter jet to replace its aging CF-18s.
It is unlikely the auditor general will find the kind of serious problems with the government's efforts to buy fighter jets as the last time, as the overall procurement system has been revamped with a variety of checks and balances.
The new review could instead turn on the government's plan to buy interim fighter jets and its arguably slow progress in holding a competition to replace the CF-18s, said defence analyst David Perry of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute.
"How much benefit and at what cost will Canada obtain fighter aircraft by virtue of going through an interim fighter purchase as well as doing a life extension?" Perry said.
"For me, one of the biggest concerns is that the process from this point forward is not exactly lightning quick."
The Liberals announced in November that they plan to buy used fighter jets from Australia -- rather than new Super Hornets from Boeing -- as a stop-gap until the entire CF-18 fleet can be replaced.
The new planes were originally expected by 2025, but documents provided to industry last week show the new target is 2031, as the government plans to take its time with a competition.
The delay is almost certain to mean another round of expensive and complicated life extensions to the CF-18s, which will be 50 years old by the time the last are retired.
Previous reports have determined that any life extensions to the CF-18s beyond 2025 would be "a high-risk option in terms of cost, schedule and technical factors."
Many defence analysts and retired military officials have questioned the need for interim fighters and urged an immediate competition, rather than waiting several years.
June 28, 2023 | Local, Other Defence
A Senate committee has delivered a forceful call for greater participation by Indigenous communities in shaping Canada’s Arctic defence and security.
September 12, 2018 | Local, Naval
On September 10th, Thales Canada celebrated the official opening of its eighth Canadian location in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The office will be home to up to 20 new Thales employees dedicated to the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Coast Guard and our maritime partners and suppliers. Today, the Halifax office will support the Royal Canadian Navy's AJISS Program; the comprehensive, long-term, in-service support contract for the Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships (AOPS) and the Joint Support Ships (JSS) awarded in 2017. Thales, as the prime contractor for the AJISS program, will oversee the refit, repair and maintenance for these fleets over their operational lifetime; working together with the Royal Canadian Navy and the Fleet Maintenance Facilities to ensure ships are mission-ready, where and when they are needed from coast to coast to coast. Today our team is focused on readiness – ready to support the first ship under the AJISS program. Our newest location in the Maritimes marks an important milestone of our in-service support program which will create jobs for the maritime industry across Canada,” said Mark Halinaty, President & CEO of Thales Canada. “As we move forward, we will continue to work closely with the Royal Canadian Navy, our customers and partners, helping them master every decisive moment along the way. Thales Canada's Halifax office will leverage Thales' deep expertise in project management, systems engineering and integrated logistics support; the foundation of the development of a new Canadian supply chain that will offer comprehensive in-service support for all systems and equipment of the AOPV and JSS fleets over their operational lifetime. The new Halifax location will also support the integration of key digital capabilities in big data and artificial intelligence to support modern in-service support practices. Thales' naval in-service support program solution will create jobs, contribute to important skills development, and invest in important research and development across Canada. Contact Cara Salci, Thales Canada Media Relations +1-613 894 4592 cara.salci@ca.thalesgroup.com https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/canada/press-release/thales-canada-opens-new-maritime-office-support-key-naval-programs
January 18, 2018 | Local, Aerospace
By Tim Naumetz. Published on Jan 11, 2018 4:49pm Canadians don't have to wring their hands over whether the country should sign on to the U.S. ballistic missile defence system, says a former top defence adviser to President Barack Obama. Washington is paying more attention to bigger Canadian defence issues such as the long-delayed acquisition of a fleet of new modern fighter jets, Lindsay Rodman, former director of defence policy and strategy for Obama's National Security Council, said in a Canadian interview streamed earlier this week. Rodman, a temporary U.S. expatriate who now is an international affairs fellow at the University of Ottawa, said in a podcast interview with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute that the missile defence question is not a major issue in U.S. military and security circles. “The question of ballistic missile defence has been really surprising to me since I came to Canada a little over a year ago now,” Rodman said in the interview with Global Affairs institute vice-president David Perry. “It is just not on the forefront of anyone's mind in the United States, but it is one of the first things that any Canadian wants to talk to you about the U.S. American alliance,” said Rodman, an attorney who also served in the Pentagon as Obama's senior adviser for international humanitarian policy. “The U.S. is much more concerned with just making sure that NORAD is healthy, that the NATO alliance is healthy, that our homeland defence is being well supported, and we know that we don't depend on Canada for ballistic missile defence. “We do depend on Canada's fighter capability in terms of how we've planned our North American defence, so making good on the promises that Canada has made is going to be more important than new promises that Canada could make in the future, which would be something like ballistic defence.” The Global Affairs Institute offered the podcast up earlier this week, but the interview was recorded on Dec. 18, the same day U.S. President Donald Trump released his administration's first national security strategy. It was only two years after President Obama released his second national security strategy, which Rodman said should have been in place for four years under the normal U.S. four-year cycle for renewing national security and military strategies. While explaining U.S. views on Canadian defence positions — particularly the first Canadian defence strategy released by the Trudeau government last June — Rodman told Perry that while Canada's overarching defence positions have rarely diverged after a change of government, Trudeau's new personal and political approaches to Canada's role in the world may have made a difference. “I would say that Justin Trudeau, just by nature of his international sort of celebrity status, brought a new cachet to Canada, and that's pretty useful,” she said. “Certainly, being in Canada now and learning the ins and outs about the political system a little bit more, I can appreciate the nuances in Canada's position much better.” Canada's new defence policy specifically ruled out Canadian involvement in U.S. ballistic missile defence, even after the topic had been raised multiple times in four months of cross-country consultations that preceded the defence review in 2016. Still, by last December, even Trudeau signalled that the government has not yet ruled the possibility out, and several military experts have advocated Canada's participation in a series of House of Commons and Senate committee hearings. “For a very close ally like Canada, the most important thing is interoperability,” said Rodman. “We not only depend on Canada to potentially help us out in the world, but in terms of our homeland defence there's no one we depend more on than Canada. We really need everything to be interoperable.” The most important question facing the government as it slowly moves toward a 2025 target for acquiring a fleet of 88 new fighter jets could be how the most sophisticated warplane in the world — the Lockheed Martin F-35 strike fighter — fares as it goes through a competition that will decide which aircraft Canada will buy. Interoperability with U.S. warplanes has been a central part of the argument favouring the F-35 acquisition for Canada. https://ipolitics.ca/2018/01/11/u-s-isnt-worrying-canada-missile-defence-says-obama-adviser/