Government of Canada announces contract awards for research and development in support of Arctic surveillance

On the same subject

• 

  May 13, 2020 | Local, Land

  Canadian military to get new sniper rifles

  David Pugliese, Ottawa Citizen, Postmedia News (dpugliese@ottawacitizen.com) Published: 23 hours ago Updated: 6 hours ago Canadian military sniper teams will be getting new rifles with the first expected to be delivered in the fall. The Liberal government is spending $8.5 million on purchasing the 272 rifles and spare parts. The C20 will replace the C8 as the personal defence weapon for Canadian Forces sniper teams, confirmed Department of National Defence spokeswoman Andrée-Anne Poulin. The government will also launch a competition sometime this month to buy 229 bolt action sniper rifles. That rifle, designated as the C21, will be used for long-range shooting and will come in two different calibres. The Canadian Forces says the new C20, which will be in 7.62 calibre, will be more accurate and an improvement over the current C8 used by sniper teams. The federal government initially awarded a $2-million contact to Colt Canada in Kitchener on February 28 to establish the production line to produce the C20 weapon. That contract also includes an initial delivery of 10 of the C20 rifles. That early production run is to ensure Colt has the technical proficiency to deliver the new weapon, added Poulin. The federal government then awarded a $6.5-million contract to Colt Canada on April 17 to produce 262 additional C20 rifles, associated equipment and spare parts. No announcement was made of the deal, in contrast to the announcement by defence minister Harjit Sajjan on Jan. 24 that the government was purchasing 3,600 machine guns from Colt. DND said an announcement wasn't made about the sniper rifles because the government is focused on its efforts to send out information about the novel coronavirus. Defence officials, however, privately say the deal wasn't publicized because there was concern about the political optics of such an announcement coming just before the Liberal government banned assault rifles, including those made by Colt Canada, from being owned by private citizens. Sajjan's office and the Prime Minister's Office are now carefully reviewing all communications the department sends to the news media, even on non-COVID-19 issues. DND didn't have a per-unit cost for the new C20 rifles. But officials acknowledge that taxpayers are paying a premium to have the guns manufactured in Canada under what is called the Munitions Supply Program, which sees such work directed to Colt Canada. For instance, the machine guns that Sajjan announced in January cost about double what other militaries pay for similar weapons. The Canadian Forces expects deliveries of the new C20 to begin in November. The last deliveries are expected in March 2021, Poulin noted. It was decided to forgo a competition for the new C21 rifle because an analysis under the Munitions Supply Program showed that having Colt create a new production line for just 229 rifles would be too expensive, according to DND. There are many manufacturers of such bolt action rifles throughout the world. Colt was also given another contract under the Munitions Supply Program to refurbish 75 C15 rifles at a cost of $281,000. Those rifles are in .50 calibre. The Canadian Forces expects delivery of those refurbished rifles to be completed by March 31, 2021, according to Poulin. The Canadian Forces has a program to outfit its sniper teams with modern equipment ranging from optical sights, new body armour, night vision equipment, ballistic calculators and “concealment kits.” Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2020 https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/news/canada/canadian-military-to-get-new-sniper-rifles-448930/

• 

  October 21, 2018 | Local, Naval

  Design by British firm BAE picked for Canada’s $60B warship replacement program

  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/

• 

  November 4, 2024 | Local, Land, C4ISR

  New $6-billion Arctic radar will track incoming missiles, says Canadian military

  The $6-billion Canadian system would provide missile tracking and other data to NORAD.