August 8, 2022 | Local, Aerospace
Le CP-140 Aurora survolera le Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières
Un CP-140 Aurora de la 14e Escadre Greenwood effectuera un survol dans le cadre du Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières, le dimanche 7 août.
December 22, 2020 | Local, Aerospace
Ottawa eyeing second-hand market to replace VIP and cargo fleet
Government considering a deal with commercial airlines seeking financial assistance, sources say
Daniel Leblanc · CBC News · Posted: Dec 22, 2020 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: 9 hours ago
The federal government is exploring the possibility of replacing its aging fleet of transportation planes as part of a planned bailout of the country's battered airline industry, federal sources said.
While plans to replace the Canadian Armed Forces' five CC-150 Polaris aircraft have been in the works for years, government officials said they have started to look at whether any deal can be found among commercial airlines that are currently looking for financial relief from Ottawa.
The airline industry has been one of the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and is facing a liquidity crisis, having been forced to cut back on a number of regular routes amid a sharp decline in demand.
Sources, whom CBC News agreed not to identify in order to discuss confidential elements of the procurement process and talks with the airline industry, said Air Canada is seen as a potential supplier for the fleet, which is used to transport cargo, troops and dignitaries such as the prime minister. Still, the sources said discussions are preliminary.
Last week, all potential suppliers were invited to signify their interest in the contract as part of an "invitation to qualify" published on a federal website.
"It is not a new project," a defence official said. "The reason why [the Canadian Armed Forces] are looking at this now is really because of the fact there have been significant changes in the global aircraft market this year. They are looking at options to see what suppliers might have available, because order books are looking different than they were a year ago."
Another official confirmed the government sees a possible window to inject liquidity into the airline industry at the same time as it seeks to replace its fleet of gas guzzling transport aircraft.
"When the government decided a few weeks ago to help the airline sector, there was a situation where it became possible to address two issues at once, namely helping the airline industry at the same time as replacing an aging and polluting fleet," the official said.
Proceed with caution
Still, aviation expert John Gradek cautioned that a company like Air Canada would much prefer to hold on to its most recent aircraft and sell the older ones to the government.
"Would you want to trade old for old?" he asked.
Gradek added there are thousands of aircraft parked around the world, and manufacturers, facing a decreased demand, might be willing to offer a deal to the Canadian government. He pointed to Air Transat as a potential Canadian-based supplier facing financial difficulties and surplus capacity.
"The airline market is soft; it's a buyer's market," he said.
Air Canada declined to comment on the matter.
New aircraft needed
The five Polaris aircraft were built by Airbus and sold to Wardair in the late 1980s, before being resold to the Canadian Armed Forces in the early 1990s. They are used to transport cargo and troops on military and humanitarian missions, as well as VIPs, including the prime minister, the governor general and foreign dignitaries.
Two of them are equipped for air-to-air refuelling and can each help four CF-18s to cross the Atlantic.
One of the two Polaris CC-150s that can be used for VIP transport suffered serious damage last year when a motor struck a tow tractor in a hangar and its nose crashed into a wall. The repairs to the aircraft are ongoing.
The aircraft designed for VIP use are far from luxurious and fall well below the standard of most aircraft used to transport G7 leaders, both in terms of comfort and communications equipment.
The invitation for suppliers to qualify to provide strategic tanker transport aircraft was published on Dec. 17. The Canadian Armed Forces are once again looking to acquire five aircraft for this new fleet, which will be expected to offer air-to-air refuelling capabilities for the new fleet of fighter jets.
Gradek said that once the Polaris CC-150 are replaced, they will likely be headed for the scrapyard.
"There is no market for these airplanes," he said.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ottawa-second-hand-market-planes-1.5850140
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January 7, 2020 | Local, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
See what IDEaS has been up to!
Over the past months, over 30 projects from the Competitive Projects' first Call for Proposals have advanced to Component 1b and signed $1M dollar contracts with IDEaS. In the upcoming weeks, many more are going to be posted on our web page. Competitive Projects Funding Recipients (as of December 2019) Additionally, Innovation Networks have signed 12 contribution agreements valued at nearly $18M to fund small research networks, or Micro-nets. These research communities will increase Canadian scientific capacity in a number of areas like advanced materials (detection avoidance and physical protection), and autonomous systems (trust and barriers to adoption). See the all newly signed recipients: Innovation Networks – Recently Funded Micro-Nets Corrosion Sandbox: Rust Never Sleeps Test your best technologies to find corrosion trouble spots for the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). The next IDEaS sandbox will take place at the Centre for Ocean Ventures & Entrepreneurship (COVE) facility in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia and will focus on corrosion detection on naval vessels. COVE is a collaborative facility for applied innovation in the ocean sector. Participants will get the opportunity to showcase their products on realistic simulations, with successful demonstrations resulting in access to an actual RCN vessel to demonstrate their solution in a real world environment. Watch for the Call for Applicants in January 2020. Thank you, The IDEaS Team
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January 31, 2019 | Local, Aerospace
Canada forced to pay bigger share of F-35 fighter jet development costs — even though it may never buy any
OTTAWA — Canada is being forced to shoulder a bigger share of the costs of developing F-35 fighter jets even though it has not decided whether it will actually buy any. Canada is one of nine partner countries in the F-35 project, each of which is required to cover a portion of the stealth fighter's multibillion-dollar development costs to stay at the table. Each country pays based on the number of F-35s it's expecting to buy. Canada has pitched in more than half-a-billion dollars over the last 20 years, including $54 million last year. But that amount was based on the Stephen Harper government's plan to buy 65 new fighter jets to replace Canada's aging CF-18s, which the Trudeau government has since officially increased to 88. Even though Canada has not committed that those 88 jets will be F-35s, the Department of National Defence says that change means it will have to pay more to remain a partner — including about $72 million this year. “Canada's costs under the F-35 (partnership agreement) are based on an intended fleet size,” Defence Department spokeswoman Ashley Lemire said in an email. “Canada changed its fleet size within the F-35 (agreement) from 65 to 88 aircraft to align with government decisions on the size of the intended permanent fighter fleet to be acquired through competition and the payment increased accordingly.” The F-35's development costs have been a constant source of criticism over the life of the stealth-fighter program, which Canada first joined under the Chretien government in 1997. The entire program is believed to have already cost more than US$1 trillion. The Trudeau government says it plans to keep Canada in the F-35 development effort until a replacement for the CF-18s is chosen — partners in the development work can buy the planes at a lower price and compete for work associated with their production and long-term maintenance. Canadian companies have so far won more than $1.2 billion in contracts related to the F-35, according to the government. The F-35 is one of four planes slated to participate in the $19-billion competition that the government plans to launch this spring, the others being Boeing's Super Hornet, Eurofighter's Typhoon and Saab's Gripen. The competition isn't scheduled to select a winner until 2021 or 2022, meaning Canada will be on the hook for several more payments. The first new aircraft is expected in 2025 and the last in 2031, when the CF-18s will be phased out. F-35 maker Lockheed Martin says more than 350 of the stealth fighters have been delivered to different countries, while Israel became the first country to use the plane in combat last year when two of the jets struck targets in neighbouring Syria. Acting U.S. defence secretary Patrick Shanahan, a former Boeing executive, nonetheless criticized the program on Monday, saying it “has room for a lot more performance.” “I am biased toward performance,” he was quoted as saying when asked if he is biased toward Boeing. “I am biased toward giving the taxpayer their money's worth. And the F-35, unequivocally, I can say, has a lot of opportunity for more performance.” https://ottawacitizen.com/news/world/plan-to-buy-more-fighter-jets-puts-canada-on-hook-for-bigger-share-of-f-35-costs/wcm/efec8576-c36f-40cf-922a-2bb324352388