24 septembre 2017 | Local, Aérospatial

A First in Canada - Americas aviation industry to gather at YQB

Québec City Jean Lesage International Airport (YQB) is set to host Routes Americas 2019, the aviation industry's top international forum.

2019 Date yet to be confirmed

https://ceo.ca/@newswire/a-first-in-canada-americas-aviation-industry-to-gather

Sur le même sujet

  • Navy launches push to replace submarine fleet | Times Colonist

    15 juillet 2021 | Local, Naval

    Navy launches push to replace submarine fleet | Times Colonist

    OTTAWA — The Royal Canadian Navy is launching a push to replace Canada’s beleaguered submarine fleet, setting the stage for what will almost certainly be a debate around the need for such vessels.. . .

  • Why Saab’s Gripen E could make perfect sense for Canada

    12 janvier 2021 | Local, Aérospatial

    Why Saab’s Gripen E could make perfect sense for Canada

    We paid a visit to Swedish OEM, Saab, to learn if its Gripen E offering to replace Canada's aging CF-188 Hornets has the requisite muscle to give the other entrants a run for their money. BY JAMIE HUNTER | JANUARY 12, 2021 Estimated reading time 14 minutes, 12 seconds. “Gripen E meets and/or exceeds all of the Canadian requirements. It's an efficient, modern fighter, and it's the latest development on the market.” So says Anders Håkansson, Saab's deputy campaign director for the company's participation in Canada's Future Fighter Capability Project (FFCP). Canada's protracted search for a new fighter aircraft to replace its aging McDonnell Douglas CF-188 Hornets has narrowed to a field of three competitors. The U.S. manufacturing giants of Boeing and Lockheed Martin are respectively offering the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and the F-35A Lightning II, with Sweden completing the trio with Saab's latest incarnation of Gripen — the single-seat E variant. While Saab is often cited as an excellent model for cost-effectiveness — company marketing literature refers to Gripen E as “the smart fighter” — actual capability is sometimes overlooked. So, does Gripen E have the requisite muscle to give the U.S. heavyweights a run for their money in this important campaign? The Canadian Requirement The complex saga of the Royal Canadian Air Force's (RCAF's) CF-188 recapitalization project includes Canada becoming a partner in the multinational F-35 program back in 1997. This enabled Canadian industry to gain a foothold in the global supply chain for the stealthy fighter, and Canada ultimately planned to purchase 65 F-35As. But the then-Prime Ministerial candidate Justin Trudeau pledged to overturn the F-35 deal — forcing a competition rather than a straight, non-competed acquisition of Lightning IIs. Fast-forward to July 31, 2020, and formal responses to a request for proposal were submitted to Ottawa by the three remaining interested parties in the FFCP. The Eurofighter Typhoon and Dassault Rafale had already withdrawn from the race, making this a three-way chase for the prized contract. The $11 to $15 billion FFCP calls for 88 fighters to be procured through an open competition, with the aircraft required to enter service from 2025 and be sustained to around 2060. Canada will select a winner by late 2021 using a formula that assigns 20 per cent to industrial offsets, 20 per cent to cost, and the remaining 60 per cent to overall capability. As the sole non-U.S. candidate, Sweden's Saab appears to be an outsider — maybe even a stalking horse. However, Saab is heavily committed to Canada with a strong, but understated, offering that shouldn't be underestimated. While Gripen E's moniker aligns it with the lineage and ethos of its Gripen A-D predecessors as capable but “affordable” fighters, the E is a very different beast in many ways. With seven aircraft now in various stages of flight-testing, one aircraft now at its Brazilian test centre, and initial deliveries to the Swedish Air Force planned for 2023, Gripen E's program is gaining momentum. Gripen E is a subtly beefed-up variant of the original Gripen in terms of airframe, but under the surface it couldn't be more different. With 10 external hardpoints, Gripen E can carry up to seven MBDA Meteor beyond visual range air-to-air missiles — a weapon that has been eyed enviously by the U.S. in comparison to its AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM). Combined with the Leonardo ES-05 Raven radar, it gives Gripen E impressive detection and engagement ranges. On top of the nose sits a Leonardo Skyward G infrared search and track (IRST) sensor for passive tracking and targeting. The cockpit features an 18-by-nine-inch-wide area touch screen display, and the pilot operates in an immersed world of fused data that is constantly updated via a fighter-to-fighter data link — as well as connectivity to other agencies via Link 16. Sweden has been working in this connected world for decades, reaching way back into the era of Saab's Viggen fighter. Meeting the Canadian Requirement According to Håkansson, Saab's assessment is that Gripen and its offer to Canada meets and/or exceeds all of the stated requirements, including meeting Canada's obligations under the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) mission of providing air defence for Canada and the U.S. Though program officials cannot reveal the exact parameters, which remain classified. The geographic scale of Canada must mean that range and endurance are two significant factors. With a 40 per cent growth in internal fuel capacity, Saab has clearly set out to address any perceived shortcomings of the earlier Gripens. “Part of the reason we developed Gripen E was with range and endurance in mind — plus the more powerful F414 engine and other modifications,” said Håkansson. One of the aces up Gripen E's sleeve is its electronic warfare system. It's completely new and provides what Saab refers to as a “digital shield.” “The idea was not to build a geometrically stealth aircraft that would be obsolete long before the life expectancy of the fighter, due to continuously and exponentially growing new technologies that target geometrically stealth aircraft,” explained Håkansson. “We added an EW system that solves the issue electronically, and that will continue to develop exponentially because no one knows what threats are evolving.” The embedded system combines active and passive systems to help protect the aircraft, which is cleverly combined with a 360-degree spherical missile approach warning system. “We have an airframe that is stressed for 8,000 hours . . . and Gripen E has the most advanced sensor fusion,” he said. “You can put the aircraft into an automatic mode and it suggests almost everything to the pilot so they can concentrate on the big picture, as well as the details.” Don't Judge a Book by its Cover “The jewel in the crown is our avionics system — and that you cannot debate. No one else has that,” declared Håkansson. Saab's Johan Segertoft led a team that masterminded Gripen E's revolutionary agile avionics architecture, which is attracting huge interest from other aerospace manufacturers. Saab set out to build a system that acknowledged computer technology is advancing like never before, with a mindset of embracing exponential growth in software code. “Gripen E is the vessel that will bring you to the fight,” explained Segertoft. “The computer power is what will win and take the pilot home.” He asserted Gripen E's avionics design is truly unique, already realizing the type of agile performance desired by U.S. manufacturers. Saab's approach has been explained as being akin to applications on a smartphone, where the operator tailors applications to their own preferences and without regard to hardware considerations that otherwise would slow the implementation. This means customers can design and develop their own software, enabling rapid introduction of new technologies and systems to deal with ever-evolving threats. Explaining traditional avionics architecture, Segertoft said: “To solve an upgrade requirement, the operator today buys a new piece of equipment, such as a new radar, bolts it onto the aircraft and puts a new screen in the cockpit.” To further explain this approach to upgrades, he used the analogy of buying an iPhone, but to get a new application on it you have to send it back to Apple and wait for three to five years to get it back! However, that is the legacy approach to complex integration issues in a highly regulated world. Safety in the aeronautical industry drives enormous cost. While most modern avionics systems separate safety-critical elements from the tactical side, Gripen E has harnessed the ability to take both and run them seamlessly as onboard computers are upgraded. This allows Gripen E to immediately benefit from the exponential increase in computing capacity. Saab said between the first flight of the prototype Gripen E (serial 39-8) on June 15, 2017, and the first flight of the second aircraft (39-9) on Nov. 26, 2018, all of the onboard computers were changed to upgraded systems providing more computer power. “Changing computers like this is typically calculated in years — we measure it in days,” explained Segertoft. “We changed hundreds of software components — 40 per cent of which were certified to the highest level — all without compromising airworthiness. Our vision has always been coding in the morning and flying it in the afternoon, and we are very pleased with where we are.” This philosophy makes it easy to add, delete, and modify coding, or to include third-party or partner involvement. Brazil, the first export customer for Gripen E, is already developing software and feeding it back into the main development program in Sweden. Patrick Palmer, Saab's executive vice-president of marketing and sales in Canada, said: “The avionics are a unique feature that we have created through years of engineering work. We are now offering Canada the sovereign capability . . . to sustain, upgrade, and enhance through the whole life of the fighter. “This is not just about aircraft performance; you also have to be able to upgrade the aircraft under specific rules and regulations. We have designed the weapons suite [offered in FFCP] to meet Canadian requirements, but there are many options we can offer in future — any weapon on the market — and our avionics make it really easy to integrate them.” Capable and Affordable? Not only does Gripen E offer impressive features, but Saab also said the aircraft has the lowest associated maintenance costs. “It has been designed into the aircraft from day one, it was a driving factor,” said Håkansson. IMP will absorb this knowledge so it can manufacture and support the aircraft through their life. IMP already has a close and longstanding relationship with the RCAF, and it expects to continue this theme if Gripen is selected for Canada — spearheading the sustainment of the aircraft and the sovereign control in Canada. “When this competition first came about, we looked at which teams we may want to join,” said Bain. “It was pretty clear to us that easily the best value for Canada was going to be Gripen, and now COVID-19 means affordability is even more important.” While Saab cannot to go into detail, its existing relationship with Brazil as the first export customer for Gripen E is a good indicator of what it has offered to Canada. Brazil has genuine, close involvement and is spearheading development and manufacturing of the two-seat Gripen F. For Canada, the evaluation process for its new fighter is expected to continue into 2021, with an award sometime in 2022 — in time for deliveries from 2025. Despite Canada's obvious political pressure to buy an F-series fighter from its neighbour, Gripen offers a compelling case to meet the country's needs and boost industrial know-how. https://skiesmag.com/features/saab-gripen-fighter-jet-canada

  • Amid global unrest, Canada's political parties say little about security, defence

    1 octobre 2019 | Local, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

    Amid global unrest, Canada's political parties say little about security, defence

    By Murray Brewster · In order to know what most of the major parties think about the uncertain state of the world, and Canada's place in it, you have to dig — really dig — to find it. The ideas, solutions and proposals around security and defence from the Liberals, New Democrats and the Green Party are buried, in some cases, at the very back of their platform documents. The Conservatives issued a policy statement last spring but have yet to state their campaign platform. And that — along with the dearth of debate about the turbulence beyond the country's borders — has alarmed defence policy experts who say now is not the time for politics as usual. "This is the time we need the clearest, most strategic thinking since the end of the Second World War, in terms of how we do Canadian security," said Rob Huebert, a defence expert at the University of Calgary. "It is not an exaggeration to say we are on the cusp of the most dangerous geopolitical environment we've seen in our lifetime." The rise of authoritarianism throughout the globe, notably in China and Russia, and the undermining of Western democracies through a variety of circumstances has increased the likelihood of conflict in the eyes of many experts. The retreat of the United States from its traditional role in the globe has enormous consequences for Canadian domestic policy. Yet, Huebert said, there is "a total lack of meaningful discussion about the type of direction we need to be taking" by the Liberals and the other parties in the campaign. The conventional Canadian political calculus is that issues of security and defence policy are not vote-getters and previous elections, with one or two exceptions, have borne out that notion with ballot box issues being defined by either social or pocketbook considerations. Huebert, however, describes it as a "very disturbing calculation" at this moment in time. He is not alone in his concern. "There's a lot going on, but near radio silence," said Dave Perry, a senior analyst at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. "I'm surprised every political party in this country has been muted on these topics." The Liberal platform, released Sunday, recycles the title of their marquee defence policy, delivered in 2017 — Strong, Secure and Engaged. The new campaign document's foreign policy and defence section is titled: "Keeping Canada Strong, Secure and Engaged," and offers up as a pledge to "renew Canada's commitment to peacekeeping efforts," which harkens back to the Liberal election platform in 2015. "To ensure that Canada continues to make a positive contribution to international peace and security, we will move forward with new investments to support United Nations peacekeeping efforts — with more help to advance the women, peace, and security agenda; support conflict prevention and peacebuilding; and respond to grave human rights abuses," said the Liberal 2019 platform. The document does not explain what the new investment might look like, but the Liberals say they're committed to spending additional $50 million per year on UN peacekeeping commitments. Liberal commitment in 2019 echoes 2015 However, Walter Dorn, a professor of defence studies at the Canadian Forces College and one of the country's preeminent experts on peacekeeping, said he finds the overall language of the Liberal promise curious. "Those were the same words used by Liberals in 2015," he said. "So, are they renewing it because they haven't done it in the last four years?" Dorn said the Liberal government, for a variety of reasons, did not get substantially engaged in peacekeeping during its mandate. It made a number of splashy commitments at an international meeting in Vancouver in 2017, but only delivered a year-long deployment of helicopters to Mali and the more recent secondment of a C-130J Hercules transport for United Nations operations in Africa. "I hope they can learn from their first term," said Dorn. "Their performance is going to have to be much better if they're going to renew Canada's commitment to peacekeeping and secure a seat on the [UN] Security Council." He also noted the "average number" of uniform personnel deployed in UN peacekeeping missions under the Liberals was lower than during the former Conservative government era. There's a promise in the Liberal platform to focus international military training activities to include instruction for other countries on how to respond to "disasters due to climate change." NDP, Greens light on detail The NDP's platform, released weeks ago, also leans heavily on peacekeeping, but also promises to work toward nuclear disarmament. The Green Party makes a similar pledge, but also nods tentatively toward the instability beyond our borders. "Canada now needs a general purpose, combat-capable force that can provide realistic options to the government in domestic security emergencies, continental defence and international operations," said the Green's recently released platform. Last spring, the Conservatives released a detailed foreign and defence policy statement that promised to buy new submarines, join the U.S. ballistic missile defence program and expand the current military mission in Ukraine. But how much of that will make it into the party's campaign platform is unclear. It is expected to be unveiled soon. The Liberal platform pays specific attention to the Arctic, but within a foreign policy context promising to "strengthen continental defence" and in the North, moving "forward with better developed surveillance and rapid response capabilities." Huebert was left scratching his head. "That blurs together so many talking points, it creates a sense of nothingness," he said. There is no mention of NORAD modernization, including the planned replacement of the North Warning System chain of radar stations, a cost-shared endeavour with the United States that some experts have estimated could cost up to $11 billion (with Canadian taxpayers on the hook for 40 per cent or roughly $5 billion of that bill.) Huebert said, when the Liberals talk about "rapid response capabilities," they're referring to better search and rescue coverage in the North, something he said will become a necessity as more and more regions become ice-free in the summer. "Problem is: We just don't know what they're talking about," he said. A Liberal campaign spokeswoman said the party understands how crucial it is to support the Canadian military and pointed to the government's defence policy as well as all of the social improvements that have been made for serving members. "Our platform lays out our vision for moving our country forward and how we plan to build on the progress we have made over the past four years," said Eleanore Catenaro. Canada supported the UN with "real capabilities," she said, adding that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed the uncertainty in the world in a foreign policy speech at the end of August. New framework for intelligence Interestingly, the platform specifically promises to create "a new framework governing how Canada gathers, manages and uses defence intelligence." That caught the attention of Perry who said the promise was likely red-circled by officials at the Department of National Defence. Few Canadians realize that the military is home to the largest intelligence organization in the federal government, in terms of sheer numbers. Precise figures are hard to establish, but the defence intelligence establishment is believed to be the country's second-best-funded intelligence organization The National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, earlier this year, signalled it wanted to see the military's intelligence branch put on a tighter legislative leash, similar to legal constraints on civilian spy agencies. The committee recommended the Liberal government think seriously about drafting specific laws to govern how and under what circumstances military intelligence missions can take place. The Liberal platform promises to create a specific defence procurement agency, which is curious in the sense that a series of government ministers and senior officials have lauded how well military procurement has been going since the Liberals came to power. "There is a bit of a disconnect here," said Perry. "The message [with the platform promise] is that you're not happy with the way procurement has gone and you want it to go differently, better or make some substantive change." https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/fed-elxn-world-1.5303672

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