Re: Fighter Jets

by Stanleyz Thu 18 Apr 2019, 5:23 pm

Matt Gurney: Nine years. Two elections. And still no new fighter jets for Canada

We're really good at deferring and rebooting. It's the buying desperately needed military hardware part where Canada comes up short

The fuselage of a CF-18 fighter jet shows in September 2006 how many bombs it deployed during the Bosnian war.Peter J. Thompson / National Post

Matt Gurney
April 18, 2019

How many governments does it take to buy a fighter plane? This sounds like the start of a mediocre joke. In Canada, it’s a sincere question.

With only months left in their mandate, the Liberals have announced that the latest attempt to replace our elderly CF-18 jets will begin next month. The CF-18s, which (like me!) date back to the early 1980s, are in desperate need of replacement. This was known to be an issue many years ago. The planes underwent major upgrades in the first years of the 21st century, which were intended to extend their useful service life all the way to somewhere around 2017 — maybe 2020 at the very latest. Astute readers will note that it is, in fact, already 2019. Not only are we still flying the CF-18, we’re buying used Australian F-18s of a similar vintage, to help restore some bulk to a CF-18 fleet whittled down by gradual attrition. (The Australians, for their part, don’t need the old jets because they’ve acquired new ones. It’s not impossible.)

The Australians … have acquired new ones. It's not impossible

Canada had a plan to replace the jets by now, or at least to have the effort well underway. In 2010, the Harper Tories announced that Canada would purchase 65 F-35 stealth fighters. The announcement was instantly controversial due to the high cost and the sole-source nature of the acquisition, and ultimately went nowhere. It was an election issue in 2011, but despite winning a majority, the Tories didn’t proceed with the purchase and twiddled their thumbs for their entire mandate. It was an election issue again in 2015, with the Liberals promising to not purchase the F-35 and to hold an open and fair competition to select the CF-18 replacement. It seemed not to occur to them that these two promises were in conflict.

It didn’t seem to bother voters much — the Liberals won a majority. They also then spent the next 3.5 years accomplishing the square root of zero, presumably because they couldn’t quite figure out how to hold a fair and open competition where one of the primary candidates was already excluded. Almost the entire Liberal mandate has essentially been them ragging the puck, no doubt in the hopes that Canadians will forget about the promises they made back in 2015. In that light, the billion-plus dollars the Parliamentary Budget Officer says we’re spending on the used Aussie jets is essentially a nine-figure punt into the next mandate.

Nine years. Two elections. Two parties in power with majorities. An identified need for new fighter jets. And absolutely nothing to show for it beyond a plan to solicit bids, none of which are likely to be chosen before the fall election. Not that there’s a guarantee that the party in power then won’t just reboot the entire process again, or defer it to some later mandate, if political or economic forces make that a more palatable option. We’re really good at that part — the deferring and the rebooting. It’s the actually buying desperately needed military hardware part where Canada comes up short.

This isn’t the first time I’ve written about this (and I have the depressing sense it probably won’t be the last, either). So I know how this goes. Readers will soon be demanding to know why Canada needs fighter jets at all, or why we don’t just go buy a fleet of drones. Well, to answer the second question first, we’re not exactly world-beaters when it comes to acquiring drones, either, and Canada’s procurement dysfunction is not limited to planes. We’re bad at it in general. Drones are improving quickly, but aren’t ready to replace fighters yet … and even if they were, we’d screw up that procurement, too.

Canada's procurement dysfunction is not limited to planes. We're bad at it in general

But it’s the first question that’s more interesting. Canada’s jet fleet is, in fact, very busy. It always has been. An effective fighter force is not optional unless we’re prepared to formally and officially abandon a series of our international obligations.

We need jets for our own self-defence, of course. Canada, as a massive country, has an equally massive volume of airspace to patrol, including vast approaches from the west, north and east. We are committed to continental defence in co-operation with the United States via Norad; Canadian jets are sometimes assigned missions to protect U.S. sovereignty. We need to be able to deliver on those commitments. Canada is also, of course, a member of NATO, and has been committing jets to air patrol missions in Europe, keeping an eye on increasingly provocative Russian air force flights. And there’s the missions that crop up from time to time: the campaign against Libya in 2011, for instance, or the more recent strikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

These are the jobs we expect our air force to be able to do, with minimal notice and, potentially, all at the same time. This is what our government has signed up for, and no government, Conservative or Liberal, wants to officially back away from these commitments.

But it’s clear that neither party has really made them in good faith. Commitment requires capability. We’re all about promising to be there when our allies need us, not so much about actually being able to meaningfully show up when called. Maybe that’ll change after the next election — the third thus far in this long CF-18 replacement saga. But that doesn’t seem a good bet, does it?

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/matt-gurney-nine-years-two-elections-and-still-no-new-fighter-jets-for-canada

by **Apollo** Mon 06 May 2019, 9:52 pm

Trump administration upset over Canada's fighter jet procurement plan, says report

CBC News
Published on May 6, 2019

by RevForce Tue 07 May 2019, 9:30 pm

U.S. government again urges Canada to acquire American fighter jets, despite Pentagon threats

DANIEL LEBLANC PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS REPORTER
PUBLISHED MAY 7, 2019

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In a statement on Tuesday, the American government called on Canada to make sure its fighter jets can operate alongside U.S. military aircraft around the world.

The American government is once again urging Canada to acquire U.S.-built fighter jets to replace its fleet of CF-18s, one day after it emerged the Pentagon recently threatened to pull the F-35 out of the $26-billion competition for new aircraft.

The contradictory messages from the U.S. government showcase how the Americans are trying to prevent a tendering process that would favour European manufacturers at the expense of either the Lockheed Martin F-35 or the Boeing Super Hornet.

The Canadian government is weeks away from launching a competition for 88 new fighter jets, with the two American firms set to enter into a competition against the Swedish Gripen and the Eurofighter Typhoon, which is built by a consortium that includes Airbus.

In a statement on Tuesday, the American government called on Canada to make sure its fighter jets can operate alongside U.S. military aircraft around the world. The “crucial” point, according to the American government, is Canada’s participation in the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) that controls the Canadian and American airspace.

Only U.S.-built fighter jets currently operate in NORAD and European aircraft would face technological hurdles in gaining the ability to fully integrate into the bi-national military alliance.

“We continue to believe in the importance of NATO and NORAD interoperability as a crucial component of Canada’s acquisition of defence assets,” said Joseph Crook, a spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Ottawa.

Mr. Crook added the American government remains “hopeful that U.S. firms are able to participate in open and transparent competition processes that can support Canada’s NATO and NORAD obligations, especially when it comes to co-operative engagement capabilities.”

On Monday, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute published letters from American officials who warned their Canadian counterparts last year that the F-35 might be pulled from the competition unless Canada’s requirements for industrial benefits were modified.

The American government is concerned about Canada’s Industrial and Technological Benefits (ITB) policy, which requires the winner of the contract to invest the equivalent of the acquisition cost in Canada.

Built by Lockheed Martin, the F-35 is a stealth aircraft developed by an international consortium of allied militaries under a program that specifically rejects the application of traditional industrial benefits. Canada has been a member of the program since 2006.

In an interview after a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said he has sought to reassure the Americans by pointing out that the Canadian government will focus mostly on technical capabilities in deciding which aircraft to purchase.

“First of all, the capabilities of the aircraft is the number one priority. Making sure we meet the needs of the Canadian Armed Forces – the Air Force in this particular case – is the number one priority. We will always make sure that will happen,” Mr. Sajjan said.

He added that obtaining benefits for the Canadian economy is also important, while suggesting the matter will have less importance in the final weighting of the bids.

“This obviously factors into the equation, but the capability requirements for the Canadian Armed Forces is always the number one priority,” he said.

In a speech laying out his foreign-affairs policy on Tuesday, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said he will seek to modernize the NORAD alliance if his party forms the next government, including through the purchase of fighter jets that can defend North America alongside the U.S. fleet.

“I will act to select a new fighter jet through an open competition and make sure the new jets are interoperable with our American allies,” Mr. Scheer said.

Vice-Admiral Mathias Winter of the U.S. Navy said in a letter last December that Canada has received US$1.3-billion in economic benefits from its participation in the F-35 program to this point.

“The F-35 supplier team will submit an F-35 offer only if (1) the ITB requirement is waived entirely and (2) there is no future ITB obligation arising from selecting the F-35,” Vice-Adm. Winter said in his letter.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-us-government-urges-canada-to-acquire-american-fighter-jets-in-2/

by Charlie Fri 10 May 2019, 8:43 am

Canada changes fighter jet rules to allow F-35 bid

DAVID PUGLIESE, OTTAWA CITIZEN May 9, 2019

Fighter Jets - Page 4 An-f-35-jet-sits-on-the-tarmac-at-its-new-operational-base-w

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/canada-changes-fighter-jet-rules-to-allow-f-35-bid

by Mojave Fri 10 May 2019, 9:18 pm

Power Play: Procurement changes for fighter jets - May 10, 2019

Procurement Minister Carla Qualtrough breaks down the changes the gov't is making to the procurement process for acquiring new fighter jets.

by Delta Sat 11 May 2019, 9:21 am

New Canadian fighter jets will need U.S. certification: DND

OTTAWA
THE CANADIAN PRESS
PUBLISHED MAY 10, 2019

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https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-new-canadian-fighter-jets-will-need-us-certification-dnd-2/

by Marshall Mon 10 Jun 2019, 6:50 pm

U.S. officials had warned that the F-35 development agreement Canada signed years ago prohibits partner nations from imposing requirements for industrial benefits

June 10, 2019

https://www.journalpioneer.com/news/canada/bidding-criteria-for-canadas-19b-fighter-jet-competition-will-emphasize-strategic-attack-and-ground-strike-capabilities-seeming-to-favour-the-f-35-320734/

by Cooper Thu 20 Jun 2019, 5:23 pm

Some changes made to Canadian fighter jet requirements as new document sent to companies

DAVID PUGLIESE, OTTAWA CITIZEN June 20, 2019

CF-18 fighter jet. Edmonton Journal Photo.

https://calgaryherald.com/news/national/defence-watch/some-changes-made-to-canadian-fighter-jet-requirements-as-new-document-sent-to-companies/wcm/9ec33807-2e06-43ec-bf9c-073285cc0df6

by **Proctor** Sat 22 Jun 2019, 8:27 am

Military allows F-35 to be promoted at fighter jet base in midst of $19B competition

David Pugliese, Ottawa Citizen
June 21, 2019

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/military-allows-f-35-to-be-promoted-at-fighter-jet-base-in-midst-of-19-billion-competition-other-competitors-not-invited

by Mojave Fri 05 Jul 2019, 6:05 pm

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CF-18 Demo Team will showcase supersonic speed at Quesnel SkyFest

Jul. 5, 2019

https://www.quesnelobserver.com/local-entertainment/cf-18-demo-team-will-showcase-supersonic-speed-at-quesnel-skyfest/

by Jackal Sun 14 Jul 2019, 8:54 pm

First used Australian fighter jets now flying in Canadian colours, plans underway to extend jet fleet to 2032

DAVID PUGLIESE, OTTAWA CITIZEN July 14, 2019

Fighter Jets - Page 4 Webp.net-resizeimage-2019-07-14t161548.035

https://thestarphoenix.com/news/canada/first-used-australian-fighter-jets-now-flying-in-canadian-colours-plans-underway-to-extend-jet-fleet-to-2032/wcm/c2603a41-ed2d-4988-9f62-9f4817770187

by Ironman Tue 23 Jul 2019, 4:33 pm

July 23, 2019

Ottawa officially requests bids for fighter jet replacement deal

CF-18 Hornets fly in formation on their the departure for Operation IMPACT, in Cold Lake, Alberta on Tuesday October 21, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

https://globalnews.ca/news/5672434/fighter-jet-replacement-contract-bidders/

by Ironman Tue 23 Jul 2019, 5:22 pm

'Taken far too long': Feds launch official request for CF-18 replacement jets

Published Tuesday, July 23, 2019

https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/taken-far-too-long-feds-launch-official-request-for-cf-18-replacement-jets-1.4519686

by Cypher Tue 23 Jul 2019, 7:42 pm

Canada asks companies to pitch replacements for CF-18 fighter jets | Power & Politics

CBC News
Published on Jul 23, 2019

by kodiak Sat 17 Aug 2019, 9:35 am

A New Fighter Jet and New Intelligence Oversight

By Preston Lim Friday, August 16, 2019

Fighter Jets - Page 4 1024px-Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning_II_mock-up_04

https://www.lawfareblog.com/canadian-national-security-new-fighter-jet-and-new-intelligence-oversight

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