Incoming AIAC chair discusses aerospace vision

On the same subject

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  January 17, 2019 | Local, Aerospace

  Airbus n'écarte pas la possibilité d'assembler des avions de chasse au Québec

  La Presse canadienne Airbus n'écarte pas la possibilité que le Québec puisse accueillir une chaîne de montage d'avions de chasse ainsi qu'un lieu destiné à la construction de satellites si le géant européen parvient à décrocher de nouveaux contrats au Canada. Ces scénarios ont été évoqués lundi par le président des activités canadiennes de la multinationale, Simon Jacques, lors d'un événement organisé par la multinationale à Mirabel, dans les Laurentides, où s'effectue l'assemblage des appareils A220, nés de la C Series de Bombardier. Airbus convoite notamment l'appel d'offres du gouvernement canadien, qui devrait être lancé avant le début de la prochaine campagne électorale, pour l'achat de 88 avions de chasse visant à remplacer ses CF-18 vieillissants. Airbus propose l'Eurofighter Typhoon. « Absolument », a répondu M. Jacques lorsqu'il lui a été demandé si la chaîne de montage pourrait se trouver au Québec. « Nous évaluons nos options. » En plus d'Airbus, les entreprises Boeing, Lockheed Martin et Saab ont été retenues par le gouvernement canadien. « La construction d'une nouvelle ligne d'assemblage, qui entraînerait la création de nombreux emplois, ne serait pas un casse-tête logistique étant donné qu'il y a de l'espace de disponible à Mirabel, dans les Laurentides, où s'effectue l'assemblage de l'avion A220 », a expliqué M. Jacques. Puisque l'appel d'offres devrait imposer du contenu local, le dirigeant d'Airbus au Canada a dit vouloir proposer une « solution canadienne ». Déjà un lien L'actionnaire majoritaire de l'A220 a décroché son premier contrat d'envergure en 2016 avec Ottawa, qui lui a commandé 16 avions de recherche et de sauvetage, une entente de 2,4 milliards de dollars, en plus de 2,3 milliards en entretien et service après-vente pour 20 ans. Le premier de ces appareils doit être livré d'ici la fin de l'année. Les CF-18 mis en service dans les années 1980 devaient être retirés d'ici 2020, mais leur remplacement s'est transformé en une longue saga. Il y a six ans, le gouvernement Harper a abandonné dans la controverse son projet d'acheter des avions de chasse F-35 sans appel d'offres pour remplacer cette flotte vieillissante. Le gouvernement Trudeau, qui avait par la suite décidé d'acheter 18 avions Super Hornet à Boeing également sans appel d'offres, a annulé cet achat en 2017 dans la foulée du conflit commercial entre Boeing et Bombardier à propos de la C Series. D'ici à ce que ce contrat se concrétise, Ottawa s'est tourné vers l'Australie pour acheter des avions de chasse provisoires. D'après M. Jacques, le Canada est « vraiment engagé » à « stimuler la concurrence », ce qui pourrait ouvrir une porte à un autre constructeur que l'américaine Boeing. « Je pense que c'est important pour le Canada d'avoir une flotte différente de ce qu'il y a aux États-Unis [avec Boeing], a-t-il dit. [Cela serait] une bonne chose pour le NORAD [Commandement de la défense aérospatiale de l'Amérique du Nord]. » Citant l'exemple du Royaume-Uni, qui est client d'Airbus et de Lockheed Martin pour sa flotte, M. Jacques a soutenu que rien n'empêchait le Canada de faire de même. Des satellites en plus? Parallèlement au dossier des avions de combat, le dirigeant d'Airbus a mentionné que l'entreprise pourrait se tourner vers le Québec pour la construction de satellites si sa proposition est retenue par Télésat Canada, un exploitant de satellites de télécommunication. Cette entreprise avait sollicité des offres à Airbus et à Thales pour le lancement en orbite « d'entre 300 et 500 satellites », selon M. Jacques, dans le cadre d'un projet entourant l'accès à Internet. « Cela viendrait changer la donne au Québec », a-t-il lancé, en évoquant au passage la création de quelque 200 emplois. Airbus dit échanger avec différents ordres de gouvernement, dont Québec et Ottawa, dans le but de s'installer dans la province si la multinationale obtient le contrat. https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1146770/airbus-possibilite-assembler-avions-chasse-quebec

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  April 25, 2019 | Local, Aerospace

  Lack of expert procurement staff could hinder Canadian Forces drone purchase

  DAVID PUGLIESE, OTTAWA CITIZEN The Department of National Defence has updated details about its key ongoing defence procurements. I have written an article on that update which can be viewed at the National Post website: https://nationalpost.com/news/government-expects-to-award-contract-for-new-fighter-jet-fleet-in-2022-but-admits-it-could-face-delays The article notes the DND warning about issues that could affect the proposed purchase of a fleet of uninhabited aerial vehicles, commonly referred to as drones. The DND update warned that there might not be enough procurement staff with the required expertise to move that program forward on schedule. The department hopes to deal with the problem by hiring contractors. A draft invitation to qualify for that project was released April 5 and a contact is expected to be awarded in 2022, the update pointed out. The lack of staff has been an ongoing issue for the UAV program but in other ways. In May 2010 I reported The Canadian Force's plan to buy pilotless aircraft to conduct surveillance off the country's coasts, in the Arctic and on overseas missions had fallen behind schedule because the military doesn't have enough people to fly the drones. While the UAVs don't carry pilots, they still require an operator on the ground to fly the craft. Staff are also needed to maintain the equipment and to prepare them for flight. But at the time the air force was having difficulty finding enough people for a new unit that would be needed to operate the UAVs. Then called the Joint UAV Surveillance and Target Acquisition System or JUSTAS, there had been a number of plans for the acquisition. One of the earlier ones involved a request for proposals from industry to be issued by the end of 2009 and a contract signed in 2010. The first of the UAVs would have arrived by February 2012. That obviously didn't happen. A reworked plan called for the delivery of the UAVs in 2014, with full operating capability in 2017. That didn't happen. The project is now named, RPAS, for Remotely Piloted Aircraft System. The latest plan calls for a contract to be awarded in 2022-2023 with full capability – an armed drone fleet – in place by 2029-2030. https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/lack-of-expert-procurement-staff-could-hinder-canadian-forces-drone-purchase

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  June 25, 2020 | Local, Aerospace

  RPAS: Pursuing unmanned success

  The two leading candidates to provide the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) with a new remotely piloted aerial system (RPAS) are offering American and Israeli aircraft, but the federal government will be leveraging the project to grow Canadian capabilities and capacity in the unmanned aerial system (UAS) sector. “The scope and scale of this procurement gives us a unique opportunity to strategically position Canada's UAS sector for future success,” John MacInnis, director of the project at Innovation, Science and Economic Development, told a webinar hosted by Unmanned Systems Canada on June 22. Canada's modest UAS sector amounts to about five to eight per cent of the global market, generating between $400 million and $700 million in revenue in 2018, he noted. But it is projected to grow substantially as opportunities open up in adjacent sectors, including law enforcement and public safety. At present there are over 100 companies employing between 2,000 and 2,500 people in skilled jobs, but 90 per cent are small firms of under 250 employees. “We see this procurement as an opportunity to build upon and develop new and lasting local supply chain relationships in the sector,” said MacInnis. Previously known as the Joint Unmanned Surveillance Target Acquisition System (JUSTAS) project, RPAS has been a work in progress since 2005. That's when the RCAF formally stood up a project office in the Directorate of Air Requirements and assigned the task of assessing unmanned capability to a lieutenant-colonel and CC-130 Hercules pilot, who mused that he was probably being a heretic for developing the requirements for an aircraft without a pilot in the cockpit. Over the ensuing years, the Air Force has gathered the lessons of allies and acquired some of its own – from 2008 to 2011, the RCAF leased an Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) Heron, the CU-170, to support operations in Afghanistan, flying around 550 hours every month – to craft a statement of requirements. Given the range of missions the government wants answered by a single aircraft, and the complexity of operating in the Arctic, the slow pace of the procurement might have spared the Air Force a poor investment. Successive RCAF commanders have noted that any platform acquired in the years after the project office was initially established would now be obsolete due to the rapid pace of UAS technology changes. As a former project director observed in 2013: “Canada is trying to do a lot of things with this UAV ... Where the United States would have a couple of different families of UAVs, we're probably going to have one or two. So, we're looking for a general-purpose system that can accomplish everything in one project.” The RPAS project will acquire a medium altitude, long endurance (MALE) intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and precision strike system with ground control stations, munitions, long-term sustainment and infrastructure to deliver up to three concurrent lines of operation at home or abroad, explained Mike Barret, project manager for the Department of National Defence. The high-level mandatory requirements so far include the ability to operate in all weather, day or night; identify, track and prosecute targets over land or sea; reach the edge of Canada's domestic area of operations from a main base or established forward operating locations; and have the endurance to monitor or prosecute targets of interest such as a ship at that extreme edge for a minimum of six hours before handing off to a manned or unmanned aircraft. The platform, which is expected to serve for 25 years, must also have the ability to operate in low to medium threat environments and in appropriate class civil airspace under adverse weather conditions; integrate new payloads as technology evolves; accept and share data with and from Canadian platforms such as the CP-140 Aurora, CF-188 Hornet or Halifax-class frigate and its CH-148 Cyclone helicopter and with allies; and conduct air strikes with precision-guided munitions. Since 2012, the government has conducted multiple information gathering exercises with industry and in May 2019 issued a formal invitation to qualify as a supplier. That process confirmed two teams able to offer a NATO Class III RPAS capable of beyond-line-of-sight flight above 18,000 feet, at least 28 hours endurance in zero wind conditions, and able to employ a minimum of two precision-guided munitions. Team Artemis is led by Quebec's L3 Harris MAS while Team SkyGuardian is led by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, supported by the U.S. government. The procurement process is now in a “review and refinement phase” as the government obtains feedback from suppliers on the preliminary requirements, explained Sandra Labbe, senior director for the RPAS project at Public Services and Procurement Canada. The department expects to issue a draft request for proposals (RFP) in October 2020, followed by the formal RFP in March 2021. The project, which has an estimated cost of between $1 billion and $5 billion, would include the aircraft and associated equipment, munitions, training, materials support and a period of in-service support. Infrastructure such as hangars at a main operating base or forward locations would be acquired under a separate process. As with all procurements valued at over $100 million, RPAS will be subject to the government's Industrial and Technological Benefits (ITB) policy. Both bid teams will have to submit a value proposition demonstrating their economic investment in Canadian industry, which will be weighted and rated along with cost and technical merit. MacInnis said one of the aims of the project will be to strengthen and expand the global profile of the Canadian sector “beyond the completion of the program.” He highlighted core areas where companies could contribute, such as payloads, data management and onboard processing, command, control and communications, and sustainment services, and encouraged collaborative R&D between the prime and suppliers to spur innovation in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), cyber resilience and systems integration. Value proposition commitments should also help build advanced skills and capacity in the sector through training programs, scholarships, technology transfer and other initiatives, and increase the “participation of women and other underrepresented groups in the Canadian workforce,” he said. Team SkyGuardian, which includes CAE, MDA, and L3Harris, is proposing the MQ-9B SkyGuardian, a variant of the MQ-9 Reaper, a fleet that has accumulated over three million flight hours with U.S. and allied partners. Significantly for future suppliers, it is a fleet with global growth, both for military operations and for border security, humanitarian operations, disaster assistance and others, said Benjamin Brookshire of General Atomics. He welcomed the application of the ITB policy and said previous experience with national offsets policies has taught the company that a strong local supply base can be crucial to meeting unique customer needs. “We have our own vested interest in making sure that Canadian industry is involved in this program,” he said. Areas of opportunity for Canadian companies are sensor technology, integrated training, communications, avionics, composite manufacturing, AI and propulsion systems. Recalling General Atomics' start as a small company of seven guys in a garage, he encouraged proposals from companies of all sizes if they can fit the business case. “If you are like General Atomics and you've got a hairbrained idea like flying an airplane with nobody in it, we're definitely excited to hear about it.” For Team Artemis, L3 MAS has partnered with Israel Aerospace Industries to offer the IAI Heron TP, a mature platform “with tens of thousands of flight hours” over the past decade, noted Neil Tabbenor, director of business development for special missions and ISR. IAI will supply green, certified aircraft and ground control stations while L3 MAS will provide the systems integration and fleet management expertise. The Heron already has some confirmed Canadian content – the engine will be a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 turboprop – but he opened the door to “any R&D effort” and “any capability” that will fit the program, though composites, tooling, wire harnesses and other manufacturing components were at the top of his list. https://www.skiesmag.com/news/rpas-pursuing-unmanned-success/