19 décembre 2023 | Local, Aérospatial

Liberals told Boeing aircraft deal would mean few economic benefits for Canadian firms

Liberal government told selecting Boeing P-8 would be the least riskiest option but provide few economic benefits to Canada

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/liberals-told-boeing-aircraft-deal-would-mean-few-economic-benefits-for-canadian-firms

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  • Boeing surprised Canada changed rules of jet competition to allow Lockheed Martin bid

    31 mai 2019 | Local, Aérospatial

    Boeing surprised Canada changed rules of jet competition to allow Lockheed Martin bid

    David Ljunggren OTTAWA (Reuters) - Boeing Co is surprised Canada softened the rules of a competition for new fighters to allow Lockheed Martin Corp to submit a bid, but is still confident it has a chance, a top executive said on Wednesday. Following a U.S. complaint, Ottawa this month said it planned to drop a clause stipulating that bidders in the multibillion dollar race to supply 88 jets must offer a legally binding guarantee to give Canadian businesses 100% of the value of the deal in economic benefits. The original clause would have excluded Lockheed Martin's F-35 fighter, the plane the Canadian air force wants. The contract is worth between C$15 billion and C$19 billion ($11.1 billion to $14.1 billion). “I was surprised by the recommended change ... why would you deviate from a policy that's been so successful to accommodate a competitor?” said Jim Barnes, the Boeing official in charge of trying to sell the company's F-18 Super Hornet jet to Canada. The change in the rules around economic benefits was the latest wrinkle in a decade-long troubled-plagued effort to replace Canada's CF-18 jets, some of which are 40 years old. The final list of requirements for the new fleet of jets is due to be issued in July. “Right now we feel like we can put a very compelling offer on the table even with this change,” Barnes told reporters on the margins of a defense and security conference in Ottawa. Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains - in overall charge of the benefits aspect of procurement - said in response to Barnes's comment that Ottawa would ensure the competition was fair. Compelling bidders to offer watertight guarantees of economic benefits contradicts rules of the consortium that developed the F-35, a group to which Canada belongs. Boeing is offering a binding commitment and Barnes said the firm would stress to Canadian officials the potential economic disadvantages of entertaining a non-binding bid. An official from Sweden's Saab AB, another contender, told reporters that Canadians could lose out by ignoring contenders that had made firm investment commitments. “I am concerned that the ability to respond to a non-binding environment may not necessarily give Canadians the best value at the end of the day,” said Patrick Palmer, head of sales and marketing for Saab Canada. Airbus SE, the fourth firm in the race, declined to comment. Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Susan Thomas https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-fighterjets/boeing-surprised-canada-changed-rules-of-jet-competition-to-allow-lockheed-martin-bid-idUSKCN1SZ2AA

  • Airbus songe à b'tir deux nouvelles usines au Québec

    15 janvier 2019 | Local, Aérospatial

    Airbus songe à b'tir deux nouvelles usines au Québec

    JEAN-FRANÇOIS CODÈRE La Presse Le géant Airbus pourrait, s'il décroche deux importants contrats canadiens dont l'octroi doit se faire au cours des prochaines années, b'tir deux nouvelles usines d'assemblage au Québec, probablement à Mirabel, a laissé entendre ce matin Simon Jacques, chef d'Airbus Défense au Canada. Le premier de ces contrats doit être octroyé cette année par Télésat, un opérateur canadien de satellites de télécommunication. Celui-ci souhaite lancer quelques centaines de nouveaux satellites à orbite basse pour un réseau d'accès à l'Internet. Selon M. Jacques, l'usine qui fabriquerait ces satellites pourrait employer environ 200 personnes. L'entreprise affirme mener des discussions avec les gouvernements provincial et fédéral en vue de l'installer au Québec, si elle obtient le contrat. « Ce serait un game changer pour l'aérospatiale au Canada », estime M. Jacques. Avions de chasse L'autre contrat, plus important, est celui du remplacement des avions de chasse canadiens. Airbus est l'une des quatre entreprises, avec Boeing, Lockheed et SAAB, qui manifeste toujours son intérêt pour l'obtention de cet important contrat concernant 88 chasseurs, qui devront remplacer la flotte de F18 actuels. L'une des conditions de cet appel d'offres, qui doit normalement être lancé avant la prochaine campagne électorale fédérale, imposera du contenu canadien. Dans ce contexte, Airbus étudie l'option de construire une usine d'assemblage final au Canada, probablement au Québec, a aussi indiqué M. Jacques. Airbus a par ailleurs confirmé que la Société en commandite C Series, où elle est associée à Bombardier et au gouvernement du Québec, investit présentement 30 millions de dollars américains (40 millions de dollars) pour améliorer ses installations de Mirabel. Des dômes permettant d'héberger des avions en construction seront ajoutés au printemps. Ils sont déjà en construction. Un nouveau centre de livraison sera aussi ajouté au quatrième trimestre. https://www.lapresse.ca/affaires/economie/transports/201901/14/01-5210974-airbus-songe-a-batir-deux-nouvelles-usines-au-quebec.php

  • 434 Squadron reformed as test and evaluation centre

    24 juillet 2018 | Local, Aérospatial

    434 Squadron reformed as test and evaluation centre

    Chris Thatcher When your squadron lineage includes bomber, strike, fighter, operational training, and combat support roles, and your predecessors have flown everything from the Handley Page Halifax bomber to the Avro Lancaster, Canadair F-86 Sabre, Lockheed CF-104 Starfighter, Canadair CC-144 Challenger, and CT-133 Silver Star, it's perhaps fitting that you get reborn as an operational test and evaluation squadron. At a ceremony at 8 Wing Trenton, Ont., on May 31, the Royal Canadian Air Force reformed the 434 “Bluenose” Squadron as 434 Operational Test & Evaluation (OT&E) Squadron, under command of the RCAF Aerospace Warfare Centre (RAWC). The squadron last served as a combat support squadron in the 1990s, based at 14 Wing Greenwood, N.S. It was disbanded in 2002 and its colours placed in the All Saints Cathedral in Halifax. “The fact that [the squadron] has flown so many different aircraft is [appropriate], in that we have now taken on OT&E for every single aircraft within the RCAF,” said LCol Graham Edwards, a long-range patrol navigator and the new commanding officer. 434 Squadron is being reformed and re-branded in response to the government's 2017 defence policy. With 13 initiatives specific to the RCAF and many aircraft due to be replaced or modernized, the workload for operational test and evaluation is going to increase. By amalgamating five existing test and evaluation flights (TEFs)–helicopter, long-range patrol, transport, land aviation, and fighter–with two new flights for search and rescue and aerospace systems under one command, the Air Force hopes to better manage its limited resources as more platforms and systems require testing and evaluation. “It was deemed that the status quo won't work if we are to achieve success with those initiatives,” said Edwards. Historically, test and evaluation has been managed within each fleet of aircraft, but it has often drawn people from the operational squadrons and into the testing seats to conduct a trial of a new aircraft or aircraft system. Each community will continue to develop its own testing expertise, but by centralizing decisions about how those people are assigned, 434 Squadron hopes to manage the strain when capabilities are being introduced at the same time that the aircraft are being deployed. Search and rescue aircraft, the CP-140 Aurora or the strategic transport CC-177 Globemaster, for example, rarely have a dip in operational tempo. “They can keep the structure of their operational force together,” Edwards said of the operational squadrons. “As the fleets convert back to operations with the new platform, we'll take the people from the test and evaluation chairs and move them back to the operational chairs. And then I can reallocate those test and evaluation [positions] to the next fleet that is undergoing the next transition.” The two new flights are intended to address the arrival of the new CC-295W search and rescue aircraft into service in 2019 and the many ground-based and airborne systems that support all the fleets being introduced in the coming years, such as navigation aids, communication systems, ground-based radars, data link systems, and even simulators. “The new Aero TEF is going to provide that body of expertise and create a body that is responsible to deliver that ground capability,” said Edwards, noting that a coordinated process will ensure interoperability between all systems during the OT&E phase. “There's no sense modifying the fleet with data link systems when we have not done the ground support with it.” By including 434 Squadron under the RAWC, which has been transformed in recent years as one of the RCAF's core pillars with 1 Canadian Air Division (operations) and 2 Canadian Air Division (training), lessons acquired during the test and evaluation phase should be more readily incorporated into the development of doctrine and tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) that shape training and operations. Among Edwards' immediate priorities are the amalgamation of the TEFs and establishing a new governance structure, what he called an “air test and evaluation master plan.” But the process won't be completely new. As an exchange officer with RAF Waddington in 2008, he was part of the transformation of 56 Squadron into an OT&E unit for C4ISR (Command, Control, Computers, Communications and Intelligence, Surveillances and Reconnaissance), conducting trials on unmanned aerial systems, Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft, and Hawker Siddeley Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft. The return of the squadron's colours was a proud moment and the members are keen to carry on its Bluenose traditions. No. 434 Squadron, adopted by the Rotary Club of Halifax, was the RCAF's 13th overseas bomber squadron, formed on June 13, 1943, at RCAF Station Tholthorpe in England. It was reformed as 434 Strike/Attack Squadron in 1963 and as 434 Operational Training Squadron in 1968. It was then re-designated 434 Tactical Fighter Operational Training Squadron in 1970, as 434 Composite Squadron in 1992, and finally as 434 Combat Support Squadron in 1993. In its first two years of operations, the squadron accomplished eight significant battle honours, reflective of what it is trying to do now in a brief period, said Edwards. But he's hoping to break with at least one 434 Squadron tradition. “The squadron would stand down every time it switched to a new aircraft. Now that we have all the aircraft of the RCAF under the remit of 434, I hope to see a bit more longevity in the squadron.” Helicopter Operational Test & Evaluation Flight at 12 Wing Shearwater, N.S., is responsible for the operationalization of the CH-148 Cyclone Maritime Helicopter. Long Range Patrol Operational Test & Evaluation Flight in 14 Wing Greenwood, N.S., is focused primarily on the CP-140 Aurora. Transport Operational Test and Evaluation Flight, located at 8 Wing Trenton, Ont., deals with all air mobility fleets like the CC-130J Hercules, CC-177 Globemaster, and CC-150 Airbus. Land Aviation Test and Evaluation Flight is in St Hubert, Que., and supports tactical aviation helicopters like the CH-147 Chinooks and CH-146 Griffons. Fighter Operational Test & Evaluation Flight is in 4 Wing Cold Lake, Alta. and deals with fighter aircraft. (new) Search and Rescue Test & Evaluation Flight will be stood-up at 19 Wing Comox, B.C., and will be responsible for the new Fixed-Wing Search and Rescue, CH-149 Cormorant, and the CC-130H Hercules and CH-146 Griffon SAR fleets. (new) The Aerospace Systems Test & Evaluation Flight will be co-located with 434 Squadron headquarters in 8 Wing Trenton and will deal with ground-based aeronautical systems such as radars, navigational aids, meteorological systems and data links. https://www.skiesmag.com/news/434-squadron-reformed-as-test-and-evaluation-centre/

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