30 mars 2021 | Local, Naval
Williams: Under this plan, Canada's new warships will never be built
DND's position is unequivocal – and deeply flawed. The department will neither entertain a new design nor undertake a new procurement process.
13 mai 2019 | Local, Aérospatial, C4ISR, Sécurité
SAINTE-ANNE-DE-BELLEVUE, QC, May 10, 2019 /CNW/ - Through Canada's defence policy, Strong, Secure, Engaged, the Government of Canada is ensuring that our women and men in uniform have the equipment they need to do their jobs and to protect Canadians.
Today, the Honourable Marc Garneau, Minister of Transport and Francis Scarpaleggia, Member of Parliament for Lac-Saint-Louis, on behalf of the Honourable Carla Qualtrough, Minister of Public Services and Procurement and Accessibility, announced that the Government of Canada has awarded a $39-million contract to Macdonald, Dettwiler and Associates Corporation (MDA) of Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, to design, build and deliver 10 search and rescue repeaters for National Defence's Medium Earth Orbit Search and Rescue (MEOSAR) system.
This contract will help create or maintain 44 jobs over the length of the contract, which will stimulate economic growth in Quebec.
Deployed on a satellite, a repeater detects signals from distress beacons across the country and along Canada's coastlines and relays them to a ground station.
As part of an agreement between National Defence and the United States Air Force (USAF), the Canadian repeaters will be hosted on USAF's next-generation GPS satellites.
The MEOSAR system is expected to deliver improved response times for search and rescue activities and increase accuracy to locate people, ships or planes in distress. It will replace Canada's current search and rescue system, which has been in place for several decades.
Quotes
"Our Government is committed to providing the Canadian Armed Forces with cutting-edge technology for search and rescue operations to save those in distress in Canada. These repeaters will be designed and built with homegrown Canadian aerospace expertise, supporting our aerospace sector and stimulating economic growth in Quebec."
The Honourable Marc Garneau
Minister of Transport
"Through this investment, our government is supporting the Canadian Armed Forces in their important work to help save people's lives both on land and sea. The contract with MDA will also help sustain economic growth in our community with 44 good middle-class jobs. ."
Francis Scarpaleggia, Member of Parliament for Lac-Saint-Louis
"This project builds on the successful partnership between National Defence and MDA to develop innovative solutions that are vital to Canada's sovereignty and security. Once qualified as operational, this system will dramatically improve both the speed and location accuracy for detecting beacons, and as a result, greatly enhance the coordination and dispatch of search and rescue teams to help people in distress."
Mike Greenley
Group President of Macdonald, Dettwiler and Associates Corporation
Quick facts
30 mars 2021 | Local, Naval
DND's position is unequivocal – and deeply flawed. The department will neither entertain a new design nor undertake a new procurement process.
7 décembre 2018 | Local, Aérospatial
DAVID PUGLIESE, OTTAWA CITIZEN The Royal Canadian Air Force will be operating the first nine aircraft from its new fleet of fighter jets starting in 2026, Department of National Defence officials say. But at least one member of parliament questions whether the federal government will be able to meet its timetable to replace the CF-18 fighter fleet with advanced aircraft. MPs on the Standing Committee on Public Accounts received more details on Monday about the Liberal government's plan to buy 88 new fighter jets. Aircraft expected in the competition include Lockheed Martin's F-35, the Eurofighter Typhoon, Saab's Gripen and the Boeing Super Hornet. Pat Finn, assistant deputy minister for materiel at the DND, told MPS that the formal request for proposals will go out in the spring of 2019. Negotiations would be held in 2021 and a contract awarded in 2022. “We have tried to be very judicious and not have too risky a schedule to try to achieve some of that,” Finn explained to MPs. “But from the bids until the signing of the contract is where we've given ourselves two years for the competitive dialogue, the final negotiations and the various approvals we need to get, signing the contract in 2022.” The first aircraft would be delivered in 2025. Finn said this schedule has been shared with all the potential bidders and “they're comfortable with that approach.” Jody Thomas, the DND deputy minister, told MPs that the plan is to “achieve initial operating capability by 2026 with nine advanced fighters ready to fulfill the NORAD mission.” But one committee member, Conservative MP Pat Kelly, was wary of whether the aircraft acquisition would proceed as scheduled. The plan, he told Finn, doesn't leave a lot of margin for error. Everything would have to run like clockwork to meet the timetable and Kelly questioned if that would even be possible given the track record of defence procurement over the years. “We just don't have time in this for the kinds of delays and the kinds of failures of procurement that we have seen in other programs,” Kelly said. “I shudder to think of what many Canadians listening to this hearing might think about. What has the potential to go wrong to get to 2025? I'm going to leave it at that.” https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/first-nine-new-rcaf-fighter-jets-to-be-operating-in-2026-but-conservative-mp-has-his-doubts
3 mars 2021 | Local, Aérospatial
CAE defense head Dan Gelston tells Defense News why the $1.05 billion deal positions the company to go after future fighter and bomber programs.