Vice Admiral McDonald to take over as defence chief on Jan. 14

On the same subject

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  July 10, 2020 | Local, Aerospace

  BAE Systems selects CAE Medallion MR e-Series for Qatar Typhoon simulators

  Montreal, July 8, 2020 - Today at the CAE OneWorld virtual conference and tradeshow, CAE announced that BAE Systems has selected the CAE Medallion MR e-Series visual system for Eurofighter Typhoon full-mission simulators for the Qatar Emiri Air Force. BAE Systems is the prime contractor responsible for providing 24 Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft along with in-service support and training package to the Qatar Emiri Air Force. “BAE Systems did an exhaustive evaluation of the latest visual display systems available for fighter simulators, and we are excited by their selection of the Medallion MR e-Series to support the synthetic training capability for the Qatar Emiri Air Force,” said Thibaut Trancart, Managing Director, Defence & Security -- Middle East, CAE. “The exceptional realism and immersion offered by the Medallion MR e-Series helps deliver significant training value by allowing complex and challenging fighter aircraft tasks to be rehearsed in a safe virtual environment.” CAE will be providing four Medallion MR e-Series to BAE Systems for the Qatar Eurofighter Typhoon simulators under contracts awarded during CAE's fiscal year 2020 third and fourth quarters. During the CAE OneWorld virtual conference and tradeshow, CAE will be featuring a product presentation and demonstration of the CAE Medallion MR e-Series visual system. CAE OneWorld 2020 (cae.com/caeoneworld2020) began today and is free to all attendees who register (caeoneworld2020.com/registration/). The CAE OneWorld virtual conference and tradeshow will be available online for the next month. About CAE CAE's Defence & Security business unit focuses on helping prepare our customers to develop and maintain the highest levels of mission readiness. We are a world-class training and mission systems integrator offering a comprehensive portfolio of training and operational support solutions across the air, land, sea and public safety market segments. We serve our global defence and security customers through regional operations in Canada; the United States/Latin America; Europe/Middle East; and Asia-Pacific, all of which leverage the full breadth of CAE's capabilities, technologies and solutions. CAE is a global leader in training for the civil aviation, defence and security, and healthcare markets. Backed by a record of more than 70 years of industry firsts, we continue to help define global training standards with our innovative virtual-to-live training solutions to make flying safer, maintain defence force readiness and enhance patient safety. We have the broadest global presence in the industry, with over 10,500 employees, 160 sites and training locations in over 35 countries. Each year, we train more than 220,000 civil and defence crewmembers, including more than 135,000 pilots, and thousands of healthcare professionals worldwide. www.cae.com Follow us on Twitter @CAE_Inc and @CAE_Defence View source version on CAE: https://www.cae.com/news-events/press-releases/bae-systems-selects-cae-medallion-mr-e-series-for-qatar-typhoon-simulators

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  January 23, 2020 | Local, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

  LE MARCHÉ MILITAIRE À LA PORTÉE DES PME RÉGIONALES

  SAGUENAY – La plupart des PME croient que le marché de la défense et des équipements militaires est complexe et inaccessible. En réalité, ce n'est pas le cas. C'est ce qu'ont expliqué Rock Lemay et Patrick Sirois de la firme Triodeaux quelque 40 entrepreneurs de la région lors d'un déjeuner-conférence organisé par la Société de la Vallée de l'Aluminium(SVA), ce matin, au Manoir du Saguenay. « Il est important pour les PME de comprendre que les contrats ne concernent pas les armements et les avions, par exemple. Il y a plein de petites et grandes entreprises qui ont découvert le marché militaire. Ce marché de la défense et des équipements militaires qui avait été délaissé pendant plusieurs années au Canada, connaît une recrudescence dans les investissements afin de renouveler les équipements nécessaires aux soldats. Il ne s'agit pas seulement des produits de haute technologie, mais également de produits et de l'équipement communs tels que les bateaux, les camions, les plateformes, les uniformes et bien d'autres. Par exemple, l'entreprise d'autobus Prévost a une division militaire. L'armée a acheté 1 500 camions en France et Prévost doit les habiller avec des équipements adaptés. C'est là que les sous-traitants rentrent en ligne de compte et peut fournir des équipements comme des coffres, échelle, pièces de métal, plateforme, etc. », explique Patrick Sirois, président de Triode. Forte croissance Au cours des 10 prochaines années, les besoins du marché de la défense connaîtront une forte croissance. Les budgets pour le renouvellement des équipements sont déjà votés et alloués et les différents départements de l'armée s'affairent à déterminer leurs besoins avant d'aller en appel d'offres. « Autre facteur intéressant, Développement économique Canada (DEC) a mis en place au cours des dernières années une politique de retombées industrielles et technologiques qui favorisent les PME et les régions. En gros, cette politique assure que même si le contrat est octroyé à des entreprises étrangères, celles-ci n'auront d'autre choix que de travailler avec des fournisseurs ou des partenaires locaux pour faire de la recherche ou de l'assemblage de produits. » En fait, les prochaines années promettent d'être très intéressantes dans ce marché. Nul besoin d'être impliqué dans des projets d'armement. « Il y a beaucoup d'équipements pour lesquels la défense canadienne cherchera des fournisseurs, tels que des remorques, des ponts, des ponceaux, des équipements logistiques, des conteneurs ainsi que l'ensemble de l'équipement nécessaire à installer et soutenir des campements temporaires. Tous ces projets représentent de belles opportunités pour les entreprises de la région », affirment M. Sirois et son collègue Rock Lemay en précisant que le marché de la défense et des équipements militaires est de plus en plus accessible pour les PME qui savent se préparer et qui ont un minimum de processus déployés dans leur organisation. Enfin, soulignons que ce déjeuner-conférence servait à démystifier le processus et de permettre aux PME qui le désirent d'êtres accompagnées tout au long de la démarche par la SVA et son créneau d'excellence. (Texte en collaboration avec Guy Bouchard) https://informeaffaires.com/regional/manufacturier-et-fournisseur/le-marche-militaire-a-la-portee-des-pme-regionales

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  December 1, 2017 | Local, Naval

  Chantier Davie won’t take ‘no’ for an answer

  By Kevin Dougherty. Published on Dec 1, 2017 10:46am QUEBEC – Chantier Davie in Lévis, across the St. Lawrence from Quebec City, will be forced to lay off 800 shipyard workers before Christmas without a new contract to build a second supply vessel for the Canadian navy. “We're not taking no for an answer on that,” Davie CEO Alex Vicefield said in a telephone interview on Thursday, after Defence Minister Harjit Singh Sajjan told Le Journal de Québec last week through his press attaché that the government does not plan to buy a second supply ship. In an email response Thursday, Sajjan's press attaché Bryne Furlong reiterated that, “Navy and Coast Guard supply requirements have been extensively studied and are subject to long-term planning, which does not include a second supply vessel‎.” The layoffs have begun, now that the Davie workforce has completed — on time and on budget — conversion of the German-built container ship Asterix into a supply ship to deliver fuel, water, food and supplies to the ships of the Royal Canadian Navy. Davie's plan now is the $600 million conversion of the Obelix, a sister ship to the Asterix, into the navy's second supply ship. Vicefield said Ottawa's plan calls for paying $2 billion each for two new supply vessels, the first of which will only be available 10 years from now. “Why do we need to build these ships for $2 billion each?” Vicefield asked, noting the Asterix and Obelix cost $600 million each and are superior vessels. “I'm not a political activist but we believe in the project and we delivered,” Vicefield said. In 2011, the Harper government unveiled its National Shipbuilding Procurement Program, awarding $38-billion in contracts to build ships for the Navy and Coast Guard to Irving Shipbuilding Inc. of Halifax and Seaspan Shipbuilding of Vancouver. Davie, emerging from bankruptcy at the time, is Canada's largest shipyard and was excluded. Cost estimates have risen since then, Vicefield noted, with the cost ballooning to over $100 billion. And in the six years since the plan was announced, the two winning shipyards have delivered no ships. Officially, Seaspan is to launch its first replacement supply ship in 2021. But Vicefield noted that Andy Smith, the official responsible for shipbuilding in the federal department of fisheries and oceans, told a Commons committee Nov. 7 that Seaspan has a backlog of three ships to build before work on the first supply ship can begin in 2023, for delivery in 2027. Vicefield said that in spite of granting the lion's share of shipbuilding contracts to Halifax, the Conservatives where shut out in Atlantic Canada in the 2015 election, and Steven Blaney, the Conservative MP representing Lévis, was re-elected even though Davie was excluded from the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy. “The key point here is that shipbuilding contracts do not win votes,” Vicefield said. “But major procurement scandals bring down governments. “If I was in government, I would be worried about a major procurement scandal, where you are spending five, six times the cost to buy a ship than any other country in the world pays and nothing is being delivered.” The Asterix is also a hospital ship and can deliver humanitarian aid in the event of major natural disasters, such as a tsunami or a devastating hurricane. Davie stepped into the breach in 2014, when the navy's two existing supply ships were scrapped and plans by Seaspan to build two replacement supply ships were a distant prospect. The Harper government granted Davie a contract to convert the Asterix into a supply ship for about $600 million as a private-public partnership, with Davie managing the project from stem to stern, its financing, as well as providing its civilian crew and leasing the ship to the federal government for five years. When Justin Trudeau led his Liberals to power in 2015, Irving Shipbuilding leaned on Liberal ministers from the Maritimes to have the contract cancelled. But the work was underway and Ottawa did not block the Asterix project. The Halifax-based and crewed Asterix will supply Canadian navy ships off the east coast, while off the west coast Canadian naval vessels will be supplied by Chilean and Spanish navy supply ships. “Why would you do that when you can put the money back into Canada and ensure the jobs of 800 people here for another two years?” Vicefield said. “It makes no sense.” Vicefield regards the Harper government's plans, renamed by the Liberal government as the National Shipbuilding Strategy, as “mind-boggling” and “a bit of a joke.” And he believes Canada can have three shipyards, including Davie, to build and maintain naval and Coast Guard vessels. “There are about 50 large ships that need replacing,” he said, noting the average age of the Coast Guard fleet is 40 years. “So there is enough work for sure for three shipyards for the next 30 years.” “We haven't been pushing against the National Shipbuilding Strategy,” Vicefield said. “I think it is going to fall on its own.” Irving, which is now building ships in Romania, and Seaspan, which has ordered two ferries to be built in Turkey, are defending the plan, and so far have political support. “They see the writing on the wall,” Vicefield said. “They want to destroy the competition. They see that now they have the upper hand. “But we're not going to let that happen,” he insists. “We're convinced the new government, the Liberals, will actually see sense. “But it is taking time for them to get their feet under the desk.” https://ipolitics.ca/article/chantier-davie-wont-take-no-answer/