November 23, 2018 | Local, Naval

Failed bidder files trade challenge against Ottawa's frigate design pick

Murray Brewster · CBC News

Move comes after Alion Canada challenged frigate design pick in Federal Court

The federal government's decision to select a group of companies led by Lockheed Martin Canada to design and support the construction of the navy's new frigates is now facing a trade challenge, on top of a Federal Court challenge filed last week.

Alion Science and Technology Corp. and its subsidiary, Alion Canada, have asked the Canadian International Trade Tribunal to look into the procurement deal. They're telling the tribunal that Lockheed Martin's design will need substantial changes to meet the federal government's requirements, which would mean higher costs and more delays.

The company last week separately asked the Federal Court for a judicial review and an order quashing the decision, which saw Public Services and Procurement Canada select Lockheed Martin Canada as the preferred bidder on the $60 billion program.

Alion pitched the De Zeven Provinciën Air Defence and Command (LCF) frigate, a Dutch-designed warship that is already in service in other countries.

More delays?

Depending upon how they play out, said defence procurement expert Dave Perry, both challenges have the potential to further delay the frigate program. Federal procurement officials had hoped to nail down a fully fledged design contract with Lockheed Martin by the winter.

Perry, who works with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, said he expects those negotiations to continue — unless the Federal Court orders them to halt.

"Unless there is a compelling reason to stop, they are going to keep going," he said. "There is a recognition of the urgency across the board."

That urgency is partly due to the program's legacy of delays, which have stretched the design competition out for almost two years.

Public Services and Procurement Canada would not comment on the matter because it is before the courts, but a senior official, speaking on background Thursday, said the federal government has up to 20 days to respond to the court challenge.

The official — who was not authorized to speak on the record because of the sensitivity of the file — said there is flexibility built into the timeline and the government is optimistic it can meet its goal of an early 2019 contract signing.

Perry said there are aspects of both the court challenge and the application to the Canadian International Trade Tribunal that he finds puzzling.

Alion claimed in its court filing that the winning bid was "incapable of meeting three critical mandatory requirements" of the design tender.

Speed bump

The company said, for instance, that the Type 26 cannot meet the mandatory speed requirements set out by the navy and that both Public Services and Procurement Canada and Irving Shipbuilding, the yard overseeing the construction, should have rejected the bid outright.

Perry said the criteria cited by Alion were among the first the federal government evaluated.

"The rest of Lockheed Martin's bid wouldn't have been looked at if the Crown and Irving was not satisfied that the bid met each of those [initial] criteria," he said. "It's a weird dynamic."

Alion's trade tribunal application argues in considerable detail that in order for the Type 26 to meet Ottawa's speed requirement, it will have to undergo considerable redesign.

The court application also cites the fact that the design tender was amended 88 times and those changes "effectively diluted the [warship] requirements" and allowed the government and Irving to select "an unproven design platform."

Unlike its two competitors, the Type 26 has yet to enter service with the Royal Navy. Competitors have privately knocked it as "paper ship."

Navantia, a Spanish-based company, was the other bidder in the competition.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/failed-bidder-files-trade-challenge-against-ottawa-s-frigate-design-pick-1.4916881

On the same subject

September 21, 2022 | Local, Aerospace

Operational pause of CT-114 Tutor fleet lifted
Major-General Iain Huddleston, Commander of 1 Canadian Air Division and the Royal Canadian Air Force's (RCAF) Operational Airworthiness Authority, has lifted the operational pause on the CT-114 Tutor fleet effective September 20. The operational pause was implemented following an accident involving a 431 (Air Demonstration) Squadron (known as the Snowbirds) CT-114 Tutor aircraft on August 2, 2022 in Fort St. John, B.C. The Operational Airworthiness Authority implemented the operational pause on August 8 after consulting with the RCAF's Directorate of Flight Safety (DFS) investigators and with experts from the Technical Airworthiness Authority within the Department of National Defence's Assistant Deputy Minister (Materiel). An operational pause means aircraft (either specific aircraft or a fleet) temporarily stop flying until an operational airworthiness risk assessment can be completed, and it is safe for flying operations to resume. In this case, the accident remains under investigation by DFS, but the investigation to date has yielded enough information for a thorough risk assessment to be conducted. The initial From the Investigator report from DFS has been released and confirmed that the engine failure was due to an improperly assembled oil filter. The investigation is now analyzing the human factors that may have contributed to this occurrence. The team will resume flying at their home base of 15 Wing Moose Jaw, Sask. this week. Next week, the Snowbirds' CT-114 aircraft currently in Penticton and Fort St John, B.C. will begin returning to 15 Wing. The type of precision flying in the Snowbirds' aerobatic performances requires a very high level of proficiency, which in turn necessitates a great amount of practice. Given that the team has not flown since the August 2 accident, there is not enough time left for them to conduct the number of practices necessary to return to form for their scheduled shows. Accordingly, the team's remaining scheduled performances for 2022 have been cancelled. https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/news/2022/09/operational-pause-of-ct-114-tutor-fleet-lifted.html
May 5, 2020 | Local, Aerospace

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June 12, 2020 | Local, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

‘Zero indication’ military spending will be cut amid COVID-19, defence official says
BY LEE BERTHIAUME THE CANADIAN PRESS Posted June 11, 2020 7:58 am The Defence Department's top civilian official is touting the importance of continued investments in the Canadian Armed Forces, and says she has received no indications the Liberal government is planning to cut spending because of the COVID-19 crisis. The comments by Defence Department deputy minister Jody Thomas come amid questions about how the Liberal government plans to find the tens of billions of dollars doled out in recent months to support Canadians during the pandemic. The emergency support, estimated at $153 billion at last count, has far surpassed expected government spending and significant belt-tightening is likely after the crisis as Ottawa will start searching for ways to keep the country from drowning in red ink. Military spending was previously slashed in the 1990s as Jean Chretien's Liberal government wrestled with massive deficits while Stephen Harper's Conservative government followed a similar course after the 2008-09 financial crash. That has prompted concerns within defence circles that the pattern will repeat itself after COVID-19, with fears the Liberals will lean heavily on the country's $29-billion defence budget to help get government spending back under control. In an interview with The Canadian Press, Thomas said she had not received any order or direction to slow or cut defence spending and that officials are continuing to work on the planned purchase of new warships, fighter jets and other equipment. “We are not experiencing any slowdowns,” she said. “We are continuing very aggressively and ambitiously to continue our plan.” That plan is the Liberals' defence strategy, which it released in 2017. Known as Strong, Secure, Engaged (SSE), the strategy promised $553 billion in military spending over 20 years. Much of that is to buy new equipment such as jets and warships. “There has been zero indication from anyone that there would be a cut to the budget,” Thomas said, adding Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan “has been very clear of his expectations of us to execute on SSE.” She went on to suggest the planned defence spending is actually needed as much now as before the pandemic as the crisis amplifies the already significant global uncertainty that existed before COVID-19. A scan of recent headlines underscores that uncertainty, from U.S. President Donald Trump's administration suggesting it may pull troops from Germany to China imposing its will on Hong Kong and flexing its muscles in the South China Sea. There are also ongoing concerns about Russia and the situation in the Middle East. “Canada has to be equipped,” Thomas said. “In a post-COVID world, there is, I would say as the deputy minister of defence, a need for SSE to in fact be done more quickly rather than slow it down or cut the budget.” The government last week tabled its latest request for money in Parliament, which included $585 million for the continued construction of two new naval support ships in Vancouver. The first of those ships is due in 2023. Defence analyst David Perry of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute said the Liberals have significantly ramped up military spending, but no one knows how fast the economy will recover or how deep Ottawa will be in the hole when the pandemic ends. “Without knowing more about these things, it's way too early to know what the impact will be to defence,” he said. “But it's a basic fact of Canadian federal budgeting that if a government is looking to reduce all federal spending, DND plays a part in that because it spends the most money.” And while trimming military spending was the route taken by previous governments, there are implications, as evidenced by the age of Canada's CF-18s and other old equipment and its lack of naval support vessels until the new ones are finished. “Part of the reason we're having issues with procurement today is because of the decisions that were taken before,” Perry said. “The reasons they were taken — rightly or wrongly, I would say largely rightly — in the 1990s to reduce spending then, we're still dealing with the after-effects of it now because we didn't buy stuff then and we're trying to make up for lost time now.” https://globalnews.ca/news/7053393/canada-military-spending-coronavirus/

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