Procurement chief at National Defence to step down

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  28 novembre 2018 | Local, Naval

  Tribunal orders feds to postpone contract in $60B warship project

  The Canadian Press, Lee Berthiaume OTTAWA — The $60-billion effort to build new warships for Canada's navy is facing another delay after a trade tribunal ordered the federal government to postpone a final contract for the vessels' design. The federal government announced last month that U.S. defence giant Lockheed Martin beat out two rivals in the long and extremely sensitive competition to design replacements for the navy's frigates and destroyers. Lockheed's design was based on a brand-new class of frigates for the British navy called the Type 26. The company is now negotiating a final contract with the government and Halifax-based Irving Shipbuilding, which will build the ships. But one of the other two bidders, Alion Science and Technology of Virginia, has asked the Canadian International Trade Tribunal and the Federal Court to quash the government's decision. It says Lockheed's design did not meet the navy's stated requirements and should have been disqualified. Two of those requirements related to the ship's speed, Alion alleged, while the third related to the number of crew berths Late Tuesday, the tribunal released a one-page statement ordering the government to “postpone the awarding of any contract ... until the Tribunal determines the validity of the herein complaint.” Alion has argued that the rules of the competition required the federal procurement department and Irving, which helped evaluate the bids, to reject Lockheed's bid because of its non-compliance. Instead, they selected it as the preferred design. The company also maintains that its own proposed design, which is based on a Dutch frigate, met the navy's requirements. It has said that it has received no information about why Lockheed's bid was selected over its own, despite requests for answers. Lockheed Martin and Public Services and Procurement Canada declined to comment because the matter is before the tribunal and federal court. The third company in the competition, Spanish firm Navantia, has remained largely silent on Lockheed's successful bid. The government is planning to build 15 new warships starting in the next three or four years, which will replace Canada's aging Halifax-class frigates and retired Iroquois-class destroyers. They're to be the navy's backbone for most of the century. The bid by Lockheed, which also builds the F-35 stealth fighter and other military equipment, was contentious from the moment the design competition was launched in October 2016. The federal government had originally said it wanted a “mature design” for its new warship fleet, which was widely interpreted as meaning a vessel that has already been built and used by another navy. But the first Type 26 frigates are only now being built by the British government and the design has not yet been tested in full operation. There were also complaints from industry that the deck was stacked in the Type 26's favour because of Irving's connections with British shipbuilder BAE, which originally designed the Type 26 and partnered with Lockheed to offer the ship to Canada. Irving also worked with BAE in 2016 on an ultimately unsuccessful bid to maintain the Canadian navy's new Arctic patrol vessels and supply ships. Irving and the federal government have repeatedly rejected such complaints, saying they conducted numerous consultations with industry and used a variety of firewalls and safeguards to ensure the choice was completely fair. But industry insiders had long warned that Lockheed's selection as the top bidder, combined with numerous changes to the requirements and competition terms after it was launched — including a number of deadline extensions — would spark lawsuits. Government officials acknowledged last month the threat of legal action, which has become a favourite tactic for companies that lose defence contracts, but expressed confidence that they would be able to defend against such an attack. https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/tribunal-orders-feds-to-postpone-contract-in-60b-warship-project

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  18 décembre 2018 | Local, Aérospatial

  Push to use allies to train needed Canadian fighter pilots no longer being considered

  David Pugliese, Ottawa Citizen A Canadian military plan to boost the number of fighter pilots through a one-time push using allied training won't be happening, and instead the number of aviators will be increased gradually over the next seven years using the existing domestic system. The plan to make use of allied training to increase the numbers of pilots to fly the interim fighter jets being acquired by the Liberals was outlined to Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan in November 2016, according to documents obtained by Postmedia. “Fighter pilot production would need to be increased above current numbers to fly the additional mission ready aircraft,” Sajjan was told as the number of jets in the military's inventory would be boosted. “This would be done by utilizing allied training capacity with a one-time investment.” That initiative would allow Canada to have the needed pilots in place by 2023, the briefing added. The push for more pilots was to coincide with the purchase of 18 Super Hornets from Boeing, a U.S. aerospace firm. But that deal collapsed after a trade complaint and Canada is now buying 25 used F-18 aircraft from Australia. A one-time push for allied training would no longer be needed. “As the Australian F-18 jets are very similar to our CF-18's, there will be no difference in training our pilots,” an email from the Canadian Forces noted. “We will be using our existing pilots and growing their number gradually over the next five to seven years,” it added. Last month Auditor General Michael Ferguson noted that the additional aircraft being acquired as an interim measure meant that the Canadian Forces “would need to considerably increase the number of trained pilots. National Defence is unlikely to be able to do so because pilots have been leaving the fighter force faster than new ones could be trained.” Military aviators worldwide are being lured away from their jobs by the growing demand in the civilian aviation market for airline pilots. But RCAF commander Lt.-Gen. Al Meinzinger told the Commons public accounts committee Dec. 3 that the main reason for Canadian pilots leaving had to do with family. “Certainly the feedback from those who are releasing is it's a question of family, challenges for their family,” Meinzinger said. “There's a dimension of ops tempo, work-life balance, predictability in terms of geographical location, and then typically fifth or sixth are comments about financial remuneration.” Canada's main fighter bases are in Cold Lake, Alta., and Bagotville, Que. Meinzinger said there can also be issues with spouses finding employment in the locations where the pilots operate from. In addition, some pilots don't want to be transferred to desk jobs and want to continue with flight operations. The specific number of fighter pilots the Canadian Forces is short of is considered secret. In the email to Postmedia, the RCAF says it is looking at several ways to attract and retain fighter pilots “which include initiatives to make living and working in our organization the best it can be.” “This includes looking at increasing the number of staff positions where pilots still get to fly and reviewing options of longer flying tours, which would provide our members with added stability, enable them to fly longer, and retains valuable experience at the squadrons to train or upgrade qualifications of junior members,” the RCAF added. The RCAF also says it may consider sending its trained pilots to work with allied air forces to gain further experience if there is a need. There have been problems, on and off, since the late 1990s with producing and retaining Canadian military pilots. Postmedia reported that the Canadian Forces had to send fledgling fighter pilots down to the U.S. between 2011 and 2013 because of ongoing issues, including the availability of training aircraft provided by civilian contractors at the flying training facilities in Moose Jaw, Sask., and Cold Lake. That reduction in aircraft availability reduced the level of training, which in turn “negatively impacted the pilot production capability,” according to a briefing for then Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Walt Natynczyk. dpugliese@postmedia.com Twitter.com/davidpugliese https://nationalpost.com/news/push-to-use-allies-to-train-needed-canadian-fighter-pilots-no-longer-being-considered

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  18 février 2020 | Local, Aérospatial

  NH90 : modernisation de quatre simulateurs de mission

  Le consortium HFTS qui réunit, à parts égales, Airbus Helicopters, CAE, Rheinmetall et Thales, va procéder à la remise à niveau des simulateurs NH90 au tout dernier standard hélicoptère MR-1. Le consortium HFTS qui réunit, à parts égales, Airbus Helicopters, CAE, Rheinmetall et Thales, va procéder à la remise à niveau des quatre simulateurs de mission NH90 des forces allemandes au tout dernier standard hélicoptère MR-1. Signé récemment, le contrat vient compléter le contrat de financement privé initial signé en 2004. "Cette modernisation s'accompagne d'une rénovation des configurations informatiques, du remplacement du poste instructeurs et du logiciel d'animation de la situation tactique (CGF) et prévoit une certification de niveau C auprès de l'autorité européenne EASA", indique Thales qui poursuit : "gr'ce à ce programme, les forces armées allemandes pourront fournir des services de formations de pointe pour leurs équipages NH90 dans un environnement virtuel. De plus, l'interconnexion des simulateurs répartis sur les sites de Bückeburg, Fassberg et Holzdorf et l'ouverture vers les autres moyens d'entrainement de l'Armée allemande permettra aux équipages de faire de l'entraînement collectif sur des missions complexes". "Tous les pilotes de NH90 des forces armées allemandes ont utilisé exclusivement les simulateurs de HFTS GmbH au cours de la dernière décennie, totalisant 200 000 heures de vol. Des clients internationaux tels que la Suède, la Belgique, la Finlande et la Nouvelle-Zélande se sont également entraînés avec succès sur les simulateurs NH90 ces dernières années", souligne Peter Halbig, directeur du consortium. https://www.air-cosmos.com/article/nh90-modernisation-de-quatre-simulateurs-de-mission-22576