21 février 2020 | Local, Aérospatial

Canada Needs New Aircraft, Could The F-35 Fit The Bill?

As part of its commitment to NATO, Canada also must be prepared for high-tech warfare in Europe.

Key point: Canada, like Switzerland, likely can't afford to fail again to buy new planes.

Canada for the third time in a decade is trying to replace its aging F/A-18A/B Hornet fighter jets. With every year the acquisition effort drags on, the condition of the Royal Canadian Air Force's fast-jet fleet grows direr.

“The politically-charged competition to replace Canada's aging fleet of fighter jets will rocket forward at the end of May [2019] as the federal government releases a long-anticipated, full-fledged tender call,” Murray Brewster reported for CBC News.

Four companies are vying for the multibillion-dollar contract for as many as 88 fighters that would replace the RCAF's 1980s-vintage Hornets, which in Canadian service are designated “CF-18.”

Saab, Airbus, Boeing and Lockheed Martin all are in the running, respectively offering the Gripen, Eurofighter, F/A-18E/F and F-35A. The manufacturers will have until the end of 2019 to submit bids, CBC News reported. But the RCAF hardly can wait.

The RCAF acquired 138 F/A-18A/Bs from McDonnell Douglas starting in 1982. In early 2019, 85 of the original Hornets, all more than 30 years old, comprise Canada's entire fighter fleet. The Canadian Hornets are unreliable and lack modern systems.

In 2010, Canada's Conservative Party government announced plans to acquire 65 new F-35 stealth fighters by 2020. But the government never fairly compared the F-35 to rival fighter types such as the Eurofighter Typhoon, the Auditor General of Canada concluded in a 2018 report. "National Defense did not manage the process to replace the CF-18 fleet with due diligence."

In 2015, Liberal Party candidate Justin Trudeau made the F-35 a major issue in his campaign for prime minister. Trudeau won. And in 2017, Ottawa backed off its proposal to purchase F-35s and, instead, launched a new competition to acquire 88 fighters.

The aircraft would enter service in 2032, meaning the old Hornets would have to continue flying 12 years longer than the government originally planned. Ottawa briefly considered acquiring 18 F/A-18E/Fs from Boeing in order to bolster the early-model Hornets, but the government canceled the plan during a U.S.-Canada trade dispute in 2017.

Canada was left with its original Hornets. In December 2017, the government announced it would spend around $500 million buying up to 25 1980s-vintage F/A-18s that Australia was declared surplus as it acquired its own fleet of new F-35s.

The RCAF would add some of the Australian Hornets to the operational fleet and use others as sources of spare parts.

But the government has no plan to keep its Hornets combat-ready as they enter their fourth and even fifth decade of service." We found that the CF-18 had not been significantly upgraded for combat since 2008, in part because [the Department of] National Defense expected a replacement fleet to be in place by 2020," the government auditors found.

"Without these upgrades, according to the department, the CF-18 will become more vulnerable as advanced combat aircraft and air-defense systems continue to be developed and used by other nations."

Against this backdrop, Brewster assessed the current fighter contenders, in particular, the Swedish Gripen and the American F-35. “There has been a rigorous political and academic debate about whether Canada should choose a legacy design from the 1990s, such as the Gripen, or the recently-introduced Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighter,” Brewster wrote.

“The Swedish air force is about the same size as the Royal Canadian Air Force,” Brewster pointed out, adding that Sweden and Canada also share geographic concerns.

“The Gripen is intended for operations in rugged environments, such as Sweden's Arctic region,” Brewster wrote. “Canada's CF-18s occasionally operate from forward bases in the north, but those deployments are infrequent compared with the routine activity of the Swedes.”

As part of its commitment to NATO, Canada also must be prepared for high-tech warfare in Europe. The Gripen lacks the radar-evading stealth features that in theory allow the F-35 to penetrate the most dangerous Russian-made air-defenses.

But Brewster cited a March 2019 Swedish study that claimed Russian defenses are less fearsome than many observers believe.

“Besides uncritically taking Russian data at face value, the three cardinal sins have been: confusing the maximal nominal range of missiles with the effective range of the systems; disregarding the inherent problems of seeing and hitting a moving target at a distance, especially targets below the horizon; and underestimating the potential for countermeasures against [anti-access area-denial]-systems,” Robert Dalsjo, Christopher Berglund and Michael Jonsson explain in their report "Bursting the Bubble."

The stakes are high. If Canada fails a third time to buy a new fighter, it might find itself in the same unfortunate situation in which Switzerland has found itself.

In April 2019 the Swiss air force is down to just 10 ready fighters with full-time pilots. The crisis is the result of the Swiss public's decision in a 2014 referendum to reject the air force's proposal to buy 22 new fighters to begin replacing 40-year-old F-5 Tigers.

The Swiss air force in 2019 plans to remove from service 27 Tigers. The 26 Tigers that remain will perform limited duties.

With the F-5 force shrinking and flying part-time, the Swiss air force increasingly relies on its 30 F/A-18C/Ds. To last that long, the F/A-18s need structural upgrades. The upgrade work has sidelined more than half of the Hornet fleet.

Switzerland like Canada has relaunched its fighter competition. The same companies and designs that are competing in Canada, plus Dassault with the Rafale, are in the running in Switzerland. Intensive flight testing began in April 2019.

Canada like Switzerland likely can't afford to fail again to buy new planes. The old Canadian Hornets probably won't last much longer. "The CF-18 will be disadvantaged against many potential adversaries, and its combat capability will further erode through the 2020s and into the 2030s," Ottawa's auditors warned.

David Axe serves as Defense Editor of the National Interest. He is the author of the graphic novels War Fix, War Is Boring and Machete Squad. (This first appeared last year.)

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/canada-needs-new-aircraft-could-f-35-fit-bill-125556

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27 mars 2023 | Local, Autre défense

La ministre de la Défense Anita Anand annonce la prolongation de l’opération IMPACT
Le 27 mars 2023 – Ottawa (Ontario) – Défense nationale/Forces armées canadiennes Aujourd’hui, l’honorable Anita Anand, ministre de la Défense nationale, a annoncé que le gouvernement du Canada a prolongé l’opération IMPACT jusqu’au 31 mars 2025. L’opération IMPACT est la mission des Forces armées canadiennes (FAC) au Moyen-Orient. Dans le cadre de cette mission, les FAC renforcent les capacités militaires de partenaires régionaux et réunissent les conditions nécessaires pour que stabilité et sécurité règnent dans la région. Les efforts militaires déployés par le Canada sont variés et comprennent des contributions à la Coalition internationale contre Daech, à la mission de l’OTAN en Irak, ainsi qu’au renforcement des capacités militaires de l’Irak, de la Jordanie et du Liban. La prolongation de l’opération permettra aux FAC de poursuivre leur rôle important visant à soutenir les partenaires dans la région aux fins d’avancement de la paix et de la sécurité. L’opération IMPACT se poursuivra et conservera le même mandat : les FAC apporteront des contributions visant l’opération INHERENT RESOLVE, le niveau d’effort militaire sous l’égide de la Coalition internationale contre Daech et la mission de l’OTAN en Irak. Par ailleurs, les FAC appuieront toujours l’entraînement et le renforcement des capacités de façon bilatérale en collaboration avec les forces armées jordaniennes et libanaises, et elles continueront d’offrir à la coalition un soutien aérien ponctuel depuis leur carrefour de soutien opérationnel au Koweït. La présence du personnel des FAC au Moyen-Orient et l’exécution de programmes d’aide axés sur le renforcement des capacités appuient les forces de sécurité de nos partenaires dans la région, ce qui accroît la stabilité et la sécurité au Moyen-Orient. Citations « Les membres de notre personnel en déploiement dans le cadre de l’opération IMPACT contribuent à promouvoir la stabilité et la sécurité au Moyen‑Orient. Lors de ma visite en décembre dernier, j’ai pu constater directement à quel point leur présence compte beaucoup pour nos partenaires et nos alliés. Les Forces armées canadiennes contribuent à la prospérité de la région et renforcent également la sécurité. La prolongation annoncée aujourd’hui témoigne une fois de plus de l’engagement du Canada envers nos partenaires de la région et nos alliés de l’OTAN. » L’honorable Anita Anand, ministre de la Défense nationale Faits en bref Depuis le lancement de l’opération IMPACT en 2014, les FAC ont offert de l’instruction à 4 500 membres des forces de sécurité irakiennes, à plus de 3 400 membres des forces armées libanaises et à 400 membres des forces armées jordaniennes. À l’appui de la coalition, le Canada forme, conseille et appuie les forces de sécurité irakiennes et a déployé du personnel pour améliorer le transport tactique dans le théâtre, y compris l’évacuation des blessés, au besoin. Le quartier général de la Force opérationnelle interarmées – IMPACT et le carrefour de soutien opérationnel continuent de mener leurs opérations au Koweït. Dans le cadre de l’opération IMPACT, des CC-130J Hercules fournissent un soutien aérien tactique ponctuel en assurant le transport du personnel et de la marchandise dans la zone d’opérations interarmées. Liens connexes Coalition internationale de lutte contre Daech (en anglais) Opération IMPACT https://www.canada.ca/fr/ministere-defense-nationale/nouvelles/2023/03/la-ministre-de-la-defenseanitaanand-annonce-la-prolongation-de-loperationimpact.html
25 février 2020 | Local, Aérospatial

Canada backs businesses to join in the next chapter of lunar exploration
Canada has joined humanity's return to the Moon – an investment in science, innovation and research to unlock new opportunities for economic growth and to help us answer important questions about our planet, universe and ourselves. The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is presenting Canada's space community, including small and medium-sized businesses, with the opportunity to contribute technologies to national and international efforts of exploring the Moon. This is a crucial step in humanity's quest to travel further in space, onwards to Mars. The CSA is awarding 7 contracts worth a total of $4.36 million to five companies and one university to advance concepts for nano- and micro-rovers, as well as autonomous science instruments. These advancements will serve as the first steps towards landing and conducting Canadian science on the surface of the Moon. “Our Government is positioning Canada's space sector to reach for the Moon and beyond. This investment will help Canadian businesses bring their technologies to market, creating opportunities for them to join the growing space economy while supporting Canada to achieve world firsts in space science and exploration,” said Navdeep Bains, minister of Innovation, Science and Industry. The contracts being awarded are as follows: ABB (Quebec) will receive $693,193 to design, build and test the prototype for an autonomous lunar exploration infrared spectrometer that will remotely measure and study the mineralogical composition of the Moon's surface. Bubble Technology Industries Inc. (Ontario) will receive $698,321 to develop a spectrometer that will autonomously search for hydrogen to indicate the presence of water and ice near the Moon's surface. Canadensys Aerospace Corporation (Ontario) will receive two contracts worth a total of $1,099,366 to develop concept designs, technologies and prototypes for two different classes of small Canadian lunar science rovers – a nano-rover and a micro-rover. Magellan Aerospace (Manitoba) will receive $607,258 to develop a lunar impactor probe that will deliver instruments to the surface of the Moon, including sensors to detect water in the permanently shadowed regions of the Moon. Mission Control Space Services Inc. (Ontario) will receive $573,829 to advance an autonomous soil assessment system as an AI-based science support tool for rovers navigating on the Moon. Western University (Ontario) will receive $690,123 to develop an integrated vision system for surface operations that will be used for identification of the geology of the lunar surface and for rover navigation. https://www.skiesmag.com/press-releases/canada-backs-businesses-to-join-in-the-next-chapter-of-lunar-exploration
12 mai 2021 | Local, Naval

US approves $1.7 billion Aegis missile defense sale to Canada
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Canada Needs New Aircraft, Could The F-35 Fit The Bill?

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US approves $1.7 billion Aegis missile defense sale to Canada The U.S. State Department has approved the potential sale to ally Canada of four Lockheed Martin-made Aegis missile defense systems, the Pentagon announced.

US approves $1.7 billion Aegis missile defense sale to Canada
The U.S. State Department has approved the potential sale to ally Canada of four Lockheed Martin-made Aegis missile defense systems, the Pentagon announced.