1 décembre 2022 | Local, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité, Autre défense

La ministre Anand annonce les prochaines étapes du projet d’infrastructure de la Défense nationale à Sherbrooke

Le 1er décembre 2022 – Ottawa (Ontario) – Défense nationale/Forces armées canadiennes.

La ministre de la Défense nationale Anita Anand, ainsi que Marie-Claude Bibeau, ministre de l’Agriculture et de l’Agroalimentaire et députée de Compton-Stanstead, et Élisabeth Brière, députée de Sherbrooke, feront le point sur l’avenir du manège militaire Colonel-Gaëtan-Côté (manège militaire de la rue Belvédère) et du manège militaire de la rue William.

Événement :  Les médias sont invités à assister à l’annonce des prochaines étapes du projet d’infrastructure de la Première réserve à Sherbrooke.

Date et heure :  Le 2 décembre 2022, à 9 h (HNE). Les représentants des médias doivent se présenter au plus tard à 8 h 45.

Lieu :  À l’extérieur, devant le manège militaire de la rue William, au 315, rue William, à Sherbrooke. 

https://www.canada.ca/fr/ministere-defense-nationale/nouvelles/2022/12/la-ministre-anand-annonce-les-prochaines-etapes-du-projet-dinfrastructure-de-la-defense-nationale-a-sherbrooke.html

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  • Fighter jet RFP released

    24 juillet 2019 | Local, Aérospatial

    Fighter jet RFP released

    Posted on July 24, 2019 by Chris Thatcher A formal request for proposals (RFP) to replace the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) fleet of CF-188 Hornets was released on July 23, launching the final phase of an intense competition for what will be the largest acquisition in recent Air Force history. The much-anticipated RFP had been expected in May, but was pushed back several months to allow procurement officials to asses changes to a draft version requested by several of the likely bidders. Valued at up to $19 billion, the future fighter project is seeking proposals for 88 advanced aircraft to replace an RCAF fleet of 76 Hornets that began entering service in the mid-1980s. Four suppliers have been qualified to submit bids: Sweden's Saab Aeronautics with the Gripen E; Airbus Defense and Space, under the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, with the Eurofighter Typhoon; Boeing with the F/A-18 Super Hornet; and Lockheed Martin with the F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter. The latter two both have the support of the United States government. Proposals must be submitted by spring 2020–no date was provided in the government press release–but bidders will have at least two opportunities to confirm critical elements of their submission meet Canada's security and interoperability requirements. During industry engagements over the past two years, senior officers with the Fighter Capability Office have stressed the importance of Two Eyes (Canada-U.S.) and Five Eyes (Canada, U.S., United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand) interoperability. The fighter fleet is integral to both Canadian sovereignty and U.S. defence through the NORAD mission. French manufacturer Dassault Aviation withdrew from the competition in November 2018, citing the Two Eyes requirements as a restricting factor to any proposal. Bidders can provide their security offer for feedback by fall 2019, and then revise. They will also have an opportunity after the full proposals are delivered to address deficiencies “related to mandatory criteria,” Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) said in a statement. “[Bidders] will receive feedback from Canada so that they can address non-compliance. This approach has already been used for other large federal procurements and has proven to be successful in maintaining a high level of competition.” Though technical capability will account for 60 per cent of the evaluation, economic benefit to Canada will be worth 20 per cent, the highest weighting for economic return on any procurement to date. The final 20 per cent will be attributed to overall program cost. One reason for the delayed RFP was concern raised by Lockheed Martin over how the government's Industrial and Technological Benefits (ITB) policy would apply. Though 110 Canadian companies have received around US$1.5 billion in contracts for the F-35 program to date, the company is unable to offer the type of industrial offsets required by the ITB policy and believed it would be at a disadvantage. The government was reminded that, as a signatory of the Joint Strike Fighter Production, Sustainment and Follow-on Development Memorandum of Understanding in 2006, it had agreed not to impose “work sharing or other industrial or commercial compensation ... that is not in accordance with the MOU.” Carla Qualtrough, minister of Public Services and Procurement and Accessibility, told defence executives at a trade show in May that changes had been made to the statement of requirements that would “ensure a level playing field” while “maintaining our government's policy objectives. “Every bid must still include a plan for ITBs equal to 100 per cent or more of the contract value. That doesn't change,” she said. “This procurement is a generational opportunity for the Canadian aerospace industry that will generate good middle-class jobs across the country. What will change is that it will be up to each supplier to decide whether they will also provide a contractual obligation for their ITBs.” Bidders will score higher if their ITB plan is backed with a contractual obligation, added Qualtrough. “This is a complex process. As complex as any the federal government has ever conducted. The field is comprised of very different entities – and dynamics. Conducting a truly open and fair competition among them is indeed a challenge,” she said. Mitch Davies, a senior assistant deputy minister at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, told CBC on July 23 that the ITB requirement had been structured so that companies could “make a compliant ITB offer that suits their circumstances,” but that Lockheed Martin could still be penalized for failure to meet certain contractual commitments. The competition is being monitored by an independent fairness monitor. In public statements, Lockheed Martin said it looks forward to participating in the competition, while other companies said they will review the RFP documents. The U.S. Air Force has been touring the F-35 in Canada this summer; it performed at the Bagotville Airshow in June and will be at the Ottawa-Gatineau airshow in early September. A spokesperson told Skies the fighter is “the most survivable aircraft and a generational leap ahead of any other fighter in production today. From a cost perspective, we've reduced production cost below $80 million,” which would be on par, if not below, other legacy aircraft. Over 400 aircraft have now been built, accumulating 200,000 flight hours. When the government re-launched the Future Fighter Capability project in late 2017, it also said the eventual evaluation would include an assessment of a bidder's “impact on Canada's economic interests,” a clause directed at Boeing for its then trade complaint against Montreal-based Bombardier. With the trade complaint since dismissed by U.S. International Trade Commission, Jim Barnes, Boeing's team lead for the Canada, told Skies in May the clause would not have “an impact on our competitiveness.” Boeing will likely bid the Block 3 variant of the Super Hornet, “the next evolution” that features advanced networking and data processing capabilities in a distributed targeting processor network with cockpit touch panel displays, and in an airframe that has been enhanced from 6,000 to 10,000 flight hours. “The baseline Super Hornet attributes, with the capability increases of the Block 3, is an ideally suited aircraft for NORAD and NATO operations,” said Barnes. “At this point in time, we think we have a very compelling offer to put on the table.” That offer could be bolstered by the continued interest in the aircraft by the U.S. Navy. Boeing has signed a multi-year contract for 110 Block 3 aircraft out to 2026, and is expected to convert as many as 442 Block 2 variants to the Block 3 configuration by 2033. “It is the perfect time for an international customer to procure the Super Hornet,” he said, noting that the ongoing U.S. Navy program will help maintain acquisition and lifecycle costs. Airbus Defence & Space has said from start of the competition that it would decide whether to submit a proposal once the final statement of requirements in the RFP was released. The Typhoon serves in a similar role to NORAD duty with the Royal Air Force, and has participated in numerous missions with U.S. aircraft. It is unclear how easily it could be incorporated into NORAD mission systems. However, Airbus has continued to strengthen its position in Canada, winning the fixed-wing search and rescue aircraft competition in 2016 and partnering with Bombardier on the C Series, now known as the Airbus A220. It now calls Canada it's fifth home country. “We are proud of our history as a longstanding partner to Canada, serving the country's aerospace priorities for over three decades. We welcome the new opportunities to support the Canadian Armed Forces, to provide skilled aerospace jobs across our country and to help safeguard Canadian sovereignty,” Simon Jacques, president of Airbus Defence and Space Canada, told CBC. While the Gripen E might be the dark horse in the competition, Patrick Palmer, Saab Canada's executive vice-president, told defence reporters in May the aircraft was designed to be easily upgradeable as technology changes–the avionics software is split so that flight-critical and tactical modules can be upgraded separately “without having to have a full aircraft recertified.” The jet has also evolved to ensure NATO interoperability and meet “the threats beyond 2025 – the threats we know today, the threats we don't know today ... in any contested airspace environment,” he said. More important for the NORAD mission, the Gripen was designed from the outset for Arctic operations, requiring minimal ground crew support and featuring the ability to operate from austere airstrips. PSPC expects to award a contract in 2022. The first aircraft will be delivered starting in 2025. https://www.skiesmag.com/news/fighter-jet-rfp-released/

  • Emphasizing Innovation

    23 novembre 2017 | Local, Aérospatial

    Emphasizing Innovation

    On the opening day of CANSEC 2017, Canada's largest defence and security tradeshow, standing before a collage of innovative technologies that had shaped the sector over the past century, Navdeep Bains, minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, applauded Lockheed Martin for completing its $1.4 billion industrial and technological benefit (ITB) commitments for the CC-130J Hercules. “To remain competitive, Canada must be committed to innovation,” said Bains as he described Lockheed's final investments in four small companies developing novel applications in artificial intelligence (AI), sensing equipment, multi-functional materials for solar panels and wireless power transfer. “That means continuously finding new ways of doing things better.” Unexpected as the public acknowledgement was, the words rang true for Charles Bouchard. Looking for better ways of doing business is almost a mantra for the chief executive of Lockheed Martin Canada. But perhaps not in places you might expect. “Innovation–that is the future of this company,” he told Skies in a recent interview. Lockheed Martin is best known as a defence company, the largest weapons contractor in the United States, with military-related revenues of around US$50 billion. And Bouchard makes no bones about that. But when he describes Lockheed's future areas of innovation, it's in space and deep-sea exploration; in energy management and conservation, perhaps in Canada's northern communities; in quantum computing, cybersecurity, AI, robotics and other ground-breaking technologies like automation, directed energy and synthetic biology. “This is what excites me about this company. This is what the future looks like and we in Lockheed Martin get to see it,” said the retired Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) lieutenant-general, who, over the course of a 37-year career, held senior positions in NORAD and NATO. “For us it's always, what's the next bound?” That corporate thinking has shaped Lockheed's approach to the companies in which it chooses to invest. ITBs, making investments in Canadian companies and academic research equal to the value of a major defence contract, might be an obligation, a crucial box to be checked in any proposal–and the more regional representation, the better. But, they also present an opportunity to explore the cutting edge of technology, capture new ideas and capabilities, and secure long-term partnerships. All of which can be game-changing. “A successful ITB is when we have met our commitment, and, even better, when we can do that on time or ahead of time like we did with CC-130J,” explained Bouchard. “But it's also when we leave [a company] bigger and better than when we came in. If you look at our investments in quantum computing–D-Wave Systems and QRA–we not only met our commitments, we left them stronger. This is not a transactional deal, it's a transformational deal.” Gabe Batstone understands the value of that deal well. A former CEO of NGrain, an early supplier to Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, he said establishing a relationship with the defence and security giant was one of his first priorities after co-founding Ottawa-based Contextere. “It is a significant benefit to a small company,” he said of Lockheed's $1.1 million investment in his AI software. “The money is certainly part of it. But as much as anything, it's being able to say that Lockheed Martin has invested and will be a user of your technology. That's significant when you go to talk to other large manufacturers, whether in aerospace or other sectors. “And the association with a company that is transformational, that's also big,” he added. “It gives you credibility that would be very hard to attain in other ways.” As part of an ITB investment for the CC-130J, Contextere is developing an AI-powered solution to deliver real-time notification to Lockheed maintenance workers on their phones. The technology is premised on the fact that, “close to 25 per cent of the time when people go to put warm hands on cold steel, they are unable to finish the procedure,” said Batstone. “Sometimes there's an error, sometimes they don't have the right tool. Other times the problem they originally identified isn't the one they have now come to encounter. There's some natural inefficiency as it relates to the maintenance of complex assets.” In addition to increasing worker productivity, reducing errors and improving safety, the software offers a way to capture the knowledge and skills of an aging workforce and utilize wearable technology like Microsoft HoloLens or Samsung GearHub to share those insights with a new generation. “We've got this huge blue collar workforce, not just in aerospace but in everything from elevator mechanics to power and utility workers, and they are retiring with all this tribal and enterprise knowledge,” said Batstone. “How do we capture that and disseminate it to Millennials, who learn and operate in a completely different way? Lockheed obviously has a huge skilled workforce and they are not immune from the realities of demographics.” The initial investment is intended for Lockheed's workforce, but the capability could be extended to third-party service providers like Cascade Aerospace of Abbotsford, B.C., one of only two approved C-130 Hercules service and heavy maintenance centres, or frontline military maintainers. “It will go down in the history of Contextere as one of the early highlights and seminal moments in our growth,” said Batstone about Lockheed's ITB investment. SEEING STABILITY The value of the Lockheed brand can't be understated, said Jim Andrews, general manager of Lockheed Martin Commercial Engine Solutions (LMCES). Andrews was part of Air Canada Technical Services in Montreal, the forerunner to Aveos Fleet Performance, whose assets and tools were acquired by Lockheed Martin Canada in 2013. From a start of just seven employees when the engine maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility re-opened in September 2013, LMCES Montreal has grown to over 250 people and doubled revenue year over year. It has a mandate to reach around 500 employees. “The previous facility had a very good name around the world for quality and service,” said Andrews, “and we've hired back many of the same people, but the name Lockheed Martin does bring comfort to the airlines that we deal with. Everyone thinks military, but even the commercial airlines see stability; they see financial strength.” LMCES provides MRO services to international air forces and recently closed a deal with the U.S. Air Force for work on the KC-10 aerial refuelling tanker. But in the past 18 months, the company has signed exclusive agreements with Frontier Airlines and Air Wisconsin for work on CFM56-5 and CFM34-3 engines, respectively, adding to a customer base that includes major North American and European airlines. Andrews said LMCES deliberately rebranded itself as a commercial entity to attract a global market and assure prospective customers the facility had a commercial focus. The brand has helped attract talent in Montreal's large aerospace cluster, where engine manufacturers like Pratt & Whitney Canada and GE Aviation are also seeking young technicians and engineers from the region's numerous colleges, universities and business schools. “We're still in our infancy...[but] the world is open to us,” said Andrews. “We have the Lockheed name, the Montreal location, an extremely skilled workforce and a very good reputation for doing what is right, committing to our customers and executing on what we say.” CDL's John Molberg would agree about the value of the Lockheed name. In 2012, Lockheed acquired CDL Systems, a Calgary-based firm of 60 employees founded in 1992 from technology developed by Defence Research and Development Canada-Suffield. Its software for unmanned aerial systems ground control stations was already well established–it had amassed over 1.5 million flight hours on more than 30 different platforms, and had as its primary customer the U.S. Army with the MQ-1C Gray Eagle, RQ-7 Shadow, and RQ-5 Hunter, among others. Now, as part of Lockheed's Rotary and Mission Systems business, CDL Systems is seeing opportunities beyond the military, said Molberg, its business development manager. The company recently released Hydra Fusion Tools, a suite of tools that allows users to fuse and create a 3D world from captured terrain data. More impressive, the software can generate real-time, precise 3D models from multiple 2D images through what is known as simultaneous localization and mapping. “Right now, as far as I'm aware, no one else has the capability to do a live 3D model,” said Molberg. While military and police are logical customers for a tactical terrain picture that can be manipulated and measured and provide change analysis in real time, “You'd be surprised how many businesses are interested in this–pipelines, building roads, pouring concrete. It's a new way of looking at the terrain [and] making the most of big data.” OFFERING SOLUTIONS The acquisition of Sikorsky Aircraft in November 2015 also provides Lockheed with another entry into the civil side of Canadian aviation. Sikorsky, of course, has had a firm footprint in Canada for years with corporate clients and offshore providers like Cougar Helicopters and HNZ. Chief executive Bouchard said the immediate priority remains on the military side with the introduction of the CH-148 Cyclone into service with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). It may then shift to an eventual replacement for the CH-146 Griffon–Lockheed believes the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk might fit the likely requirements. But there is no question “Canada is helicopter country,” said Bouchard, and Lockheed will be looking beyond the oil and gas sector that tends to drive helicopter sales to other areas in natural resources management, support to Arctic operations, medevac, and augmenting search and rescue capability. “We are looking not only at the more conventional helicopters, but also at the use of unmanned helicopters, whether it's pipeline monitoring, fighting forest fires or resupply,” he said, noting the partnership with Kaman Aerospace that has transformed the K-Max helicopter into an unmanned platform capable of autonomous or remote-controlled operations. “Anything that is boring, dangerous or repetitive can be done without a pilot on board.” He added, “Take it one step bigger and we are talking about airships.” Lockheed is expecting to launch its first commercial airship next year with Quest Rare Minerals, which plans to eventually operate a fleet of seven helium-filled aircraft from its Strange Lake rare earth mining facility along the Quebec-Labrador border. “I'm not limited by what we have today,” said Bouchard. “I can envision what we'll have tomorrow. I don't approach [problems] with the idea that, this is what we make, therefore this is where I want to go. It's more, what are the challenges of the customer and how can we be the solution? That's why we are always looking for new ideas.” SERVICE AND SUPPORT Among those new ideas is a change in approach to in-service support (ISS). One of the ongoing challenges for military aircraft is keeping pace with technology. In 2016, Cascade Aerospace, an operating unit of IMP Aerospace & Defence, completed a block upgrade on the RCAF's 17 CC-130J Hercules aircraft, a fleet acquired in 2007 and introduced into service beginning in 2010. Though the transport aircraft were barely five years old, changes across the global fleet and new Canadian requirements necessitated a sizeable upgrade package. Previously, with legacy CC-130 fleets, the RCAF would have likely managed an incremental program. With the J-model, however, Lockheed Martin has retained all intellectual property and data. Together with its global customers and suppliers, it develops and tests each upgrade package before providing maintenance centres like Cascade with a single kit for each aircraft. In this case, the upgrade from Block 6.0 to 7.0 involved three large modifications: a multinational block involving changes developed and available to all C-130J operators; a U.S. Air Force developed block; and a series of design requirements unique to Canada. To confirm new systems could be installed and integrated, the first RCAF aircraft was modified and tested by Lockheed Martin in Marietta, Ga., before complete kits for the remaining 16 were sent to Cascade. “That is how most of our fleets will continue to be postured,” LGen Mike Hood, RCAF commander, said of the new ISS approach. “We will continue to upgrade them in blocks along with our allies that are flying those aircraft. It is certainly a change in our operating concept since I started flying in the late '80s.” For Cascade, the block approach was a significant change from how it had long maintained legacy CC-130 fleets. But it represents “an easier way of conducting several modifications together,” Pierre Carignan, Cascade's director of C-130 programs, said at the time. “It is more efficient because you only open up things in the airplane once. ...[H]istorically, Canada would perhaps ask the contractor to do a few modifications together, but not necessarily this many all at once.” That early success has encouraged Lockheed to consider a similar approach to the long-term maintenance for the CH-148 Cyclone. The company maintains a dedicated CC-130J team in Ottawa to respond to Canadian ISS needs, but the office remains connected to the global program. “I think it is a good balance between keeping our own proprietary information protected while at the same time providing the customer with service and teaming up with Canadian companies to make sure we share information,” said Bouchard, acknowledging that access to intellectual property can be a sticky and even contentious issue for ISS. “I've never worried about Canada receiving the information it requires to protect its sovereignty.” Whether that approach is extended to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) is, of course, contingent on the next-generation jet being selected to replace Canada's CF-188 Hornets. But already the F-35 is prompting a new model for engaging with Canadian industry. Rather than ITBs, the JSF program is constructed around “best value,” a process by which companies from participating nations compete and are selected to provide components not just for their country's aircraft, but for the entire F-35 fleet, which could exceed 3,500 airplanes. But the ITB principle of helping small- and medium-sized companies reach global markets remains the same. Because of the exacting manufacturing techniques and requirements for the F-35, Lockheed and its partners, BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman, put a premium on finding innovative companies “that could learn.” One example often cited is Ottawa-based Gastops, a recipient of CC-130J ITB-related investments that also supports the F-35, based in part on its earlier relationship with the F-22 Raptor. Building components for the F-35 says a lot about your capabilities elsewhere, suggested Bouchard. “If you get the Lockheed seal of approval, that tells future customers that you have advanced manufacturing capability,” he said, pointing to companies like Mississauga-based Magellan Aerospace that provides the horizontal tail assemblies. “If you can meet F-35 standards, you can meet automotive or even satellite requirements.” With or without the F-35, the Lockheed Martin footprint in Canada is large and growing. Whether in military, or, increasingly, in commercial aerospace, the company has found innovative ways to do business differently. And it is drawing on a lot of Canadian ingenuity to achieve it. https://www.skiesmag.com/features/emphasizing-innovation/

  • Minister Blair to welcome Germany’s Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius to Canada

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