Showing posts with label Canada. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canada. Show all posts
February 13, 2018
October 18, 2017
Canada 150 jet at Airshow London
#MotivationMonday with some great shots of our #Canada150 jet at @AirshowLondon to help you get through the day! 📷Bethany DiTecco #Avgeek pic.twitter.com/pPMRgOxzM8— CF-18 Demo Team (@CF18Demo) October 16, 2017
May 4, 2016
Canada to decide on CC-150 replacement after new fighter is selected
The RCAF has plans to replace its CC-150 Polaris refuelling tankers but is holding off until the Liberal government makes its decision on what type of aircraft will be selected to replace the CF-18s.
“That will determine the requirements of the next tanker aircraft,” RCAF commander Lt.-Gen. Michael Hood recently explained to MPs. “So whether it is a probe-and-drogue, as we use right now, or a boom that flies into a refuelling receptacle, we will replace the tanker aircraft with whatever our front-line fighter is at the time.”
“We know that the lifespan of the Airbus is 2026 right now, so that decision has to be taken regardless,” he added.
Hood also pointed out that of Canada’s two Polaris aircraft, one is assigned to the Iraq mission and the other is in heavy maintenance and not available. (There is a C-130 refueling aircraft available out of Winnipeg for NORAD duties, he added.)
Privately military officers suggest the Liberal government’s decision on a CF-18 replacement is a long way off.
Hood suggested there are ways to deal with potential delays in any Polaris replacement program.
“In fact, recently we leased a tanker to bring some aircraft back overseas,” he revealed. “There are options that will allow us to mitigate whatever program challenges we have.”
April 29, 2016
Watch Royal Canadian Air Force test an ejection seat from the back of a Dodge Ram
Any day is a good day when you can speed a Dodge Ram pickup truck down a military runway before launching a rocket-powered ejection seat into the sky.
Royal Canadian Air Force Officer Maj. Lonny Handwork did exactly that in an equipment test Thursday afternoon at the CFB Cold Lake.
"I get the honour of being behind the wheel, so I'm pretty excited about that," Handwork said during a Thursday morning interview on CBC Radio's Edmonton AM.
"It's one of the few advantages of being the project officer for this. I'm kind of the boss, so I pulled rank and I get the place of honour today."
At exactly 1:00 p.m., a high powered pickup — with an ejection seat mounted on its flatbed — hurtled down the runway at more than 140 km/h.
In a matter of seconds, the seat's rocket motors ignited, launching the seat into the air.
"The event is over pretty quickly," Handwork said. "There's an acceleration of the vehicle down the runway and there is a very loud bang."
12-second test could help upgrade existing ejection seats
Of course, the seat's occupant won't be alive; a crash test dummy of sorts will be used in the dramatic feat, and spectators will be viewing from a close, but safe distance.
"The whole event takes about 12 seconds. The dummy goes in the air on the rocket-propelled catapult, about 100 to 130 feet up into the air, depending on the day. And then the parachute system is initiated and he comes down under that," Handwork said.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/engineers-test-air-force-ejection-seat-with-dodge-ram-rocket-fuel-1.3557031
April 28, 2016
Who Cares About the Canadian Laws,” Says Refugee in Canada
🆘‼💯 “Who Cares About the Canadian Laws,” Says Muslim Refugee in #Canada! https://t.co/DLKomU76YU pic.twitter.com/8rrsMqf1NR— Onlinemagazin (@OnlineMagazin) April 27, 2016
Refugees revolt
🆘‼💯 Last night more turmoil and riots in #Moria refugee camp on #Lesvos ... Migrants Rehearse the Uprising. pic.twitter.com/VJtEN0aYoB— Onlinemagazin (@OnlineMagazin) April 27, 2016
April 26, 2016
Trudeau outraged by beheading of Canadian hostage, John Ridsdel
John Ridsdel beheaded by Abu Sayyaf group
April 10, 2016
Royal Canadian Navy marks first-ever missile test against shore-based targets
Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) Vancouver made history recently as it became the first modernized Canadian frigate to successfully test surface-to-surface missiles against a shore-based target.
Utilizing Harpoon Block II surface-to-surface missiles, this is the first time the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) has exercised such a surface-to-surface missile launch capability. The launches were a part of a Joint Littoral Training Exercise (JoLTEX) recently completed by the RCN at a United States Navy missile firing range off the coast of California. The exercise was held in late March and early April.
“This successful launch test serves not only as a testament to the professionalism of the sailors on board HMCS Vancouver, it also serves to usher in a renewed capability for the Royal Canadian Navy,” said Commodore Jeff Zwick, Commander Maritime Fleet Pacific. “Years of work and innovation have led us to this point, and our sailors now have one more reason to hold their heads high. The success of JoLTEX 16 clearly demonstrates the navy’s commitment to providing a modern, flexible and combat capable maritime force not only above, on, and below the seas, but one that is now also capable of striking from sea to shore.”
The success of this exercise symbolizes a significant step toward reinstituting a crucial RCN capability that will support the Canadian Armed Forces’ (CAF) and its allies’ combat operations ashore.
“This was a great navy morning, as the hard work of the past several years culminated in the delivery of a new capability in support of the broader CAF mission,” said Captain (Navy) Darren Garnier, Commander Canadian Forces Maritime Warfare Centre. “The successful execution of JoLTEX 16 resulted from the coming together of RCN, Special Forces, the materiel group and our evaluation teams to achieve several firsts for the CAF, including the delivery of combat effect by the RCN in a joint littoral environment. As the Test Director, I offer my appreciation to all involved, but specifically to the crew of HMCS Vancouver who were ‘all in’ in terms of making this happen.”
The successful firing of these missiles in the CTS mode is the first time Harpoon Block II missiles and the new Combat Management System on board the RCN’s modernized frigates have been coupled for this purpose.
“From Vancouver’s perspective, JoLTEX 16 was a huge success,” said Commander Clive Butler, Commander HMCS Vancouver. “The missiles left the rails when ordered to do so, they followed the ordered path to the target, and they impacted the targets with precision. Vancouver’s team finished the exercise confident in the capability and excited to have contributed to the development of joint tactical doctrine.”
March 16, 2016
February 29, 2016
January 10, 2016
HMCS Winnipeg, a Halifax class frigate of Canadian Navy visits Goa 07-10 Jan
HMCS Winnipeg, a Halifax class frigate of Canadian Navy visits Goa 07-10 Jan. Has a complement of 260 incl 30 offrs pic.twitter.com/IuGycaE7cK
— Captain DK Sharma (@CaptDKS) January 10, 2016
Commanded by Cdr Pascal Belhumeur, the crew had professional & other formal
interactions with offrs & sailors of IN pic.twitter.com/l2WSnXUjb4
— Captain DK Sharma (@CaptDKS) January 10, 2016
December 21, 2015
December 10, 2015
Canada probing Pakistani madrassa - Al-Huda in Toronto scrutinised after California attack
Former students of Al-Huda had sought to join the Islamic State group
A Toronto-area Islamic school with links to a seminary in Pakistan where California attacker Tashfeen Malik studied shuttered its doors Tuesday after it was reported that former students had sought to join the Islamic State group.
Public broadcaster CBC said four teenage girls who had taken evening and weekend seminars at the Al-Huda Elementary School in Mississauga, Ontario had traveled overseas in 2014.But three of them were intercepted by security officials in Turkey before they could reach Syria.
The eldest of the teen girls, all of Somali heritage, managed to get into the war-ravaged nation where she still resides, said the Toronto Star, citing a sibling.
The Al-Huda Elementary School said on its website it decided to close temporarily because the media report had put its 160 students at risk.
“Al-Huda Institute Canada would like to be clear that law enforcement authorities have never brought forward any allegations that four girls associated with the institute traveled to join terrorist organisations,” administrator Imran Haq said in a statement.
“In addition, the institute has no knowledge as to the identity of these individuals and as such, cannot confirm whether or not they were enrolled in the Institution, for how long, or any other related information.”
“We are and remain committed to working with authorities on this or any other matter.”
Malik, a 29-year-old Pakistani national, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group before she and her husband Syed Farook shot 14 people dead in California last week.The Al-Huda women’s seminary in Pakistan where she studied in 2013, and which has branches around the world, has condemned the massacre.
October 22, 2015
Canada gets second thoughts about F-35
Canada’s Justin Trudeau says he’ll cancel plans to buy the troubled F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
Stephen Harper’s Conservative government may not be the only casualty in Monday’s electoral upset in Canada.
Justin Trudeau, the leader of Canada’s victorious Liberals and soon-to-be Prime Minister, has vowed to cancel the country’s purchase of 60 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets from Lockheed Martin and instead focus on bolstering its Navy.Trudeau’s victory marks another setback—albeit a small one—for the military program as Lockheed Martin continues its efforts to drive down the per-aircraft price of the F-35 by boosting production rates. However, Lockheed’s loss will likely translate into someone else’s gain as Canada shops for a less expensive alternative to replace its aging CF-18s fighter jets.
Canada has been part of the F-35 program essentially from its origins in 2001, when Lockheed Martin beat out Boeing for the privilege of building a new fighter jet. Canada pledged $150 million to aid the aircraft’s development, alongside several foreign partners including Japan, Norway, Denmark, Australia, and the U.K. That initial investment bought Canada—and the Pentagon’s other foreign partners—the right to acquire F-35s later at a lower price.
Canada’s Conservative government had previously announced it would acquire at least 60 jets, likely purchasing between four and eight F-35s each year at $80 to $100 million per aircraft starting in 2017. Monday’s Liberal victory puts that order in serious doubt since Trudeau intends to scrap the Conservative’s F-35 buy.
If Trudeau follows through on the promise, Canada will lose the $150 million already invested in the F-35’s development, and Lockheed would lose what would have been billions of dollars in sales to the Royal Canadian Air Force (and likely millions more on follow-on contracts for ongoing maintenance).
September 19, 2015
The F-35 is now unaffordable thanks to the low Canadian dollar
The Royal Canadian Air Force’s (RCAF) hoped-for-purchase of F-35 fighter jets has hit another obstacle, in the form of a Canadian dollar that has dropped 25 per cent against its U.S. counterpart since 2013. Another, less expensive, non-developmental plane will now need to be chosen to replace the three decade-old CF-18s.
The cost of the F-35 first became an issue in 2010 when the Harper government announced it would acquire 65 of the planes for $9 billion, with a total project cost of $16 billion. The Canadian dollar was then at US$0.96.After the 2011 election, Auditor General Michael Ferguson revealed that the Harper government had been operating with two different cost projections for the F-35, with the internal estimate being $10 billion higher than the number provided publicly.
The Harper government responded by suspending the procurement, ordering the RCAF to conduct an “options analysis” of the F-35 and alternative aircraft, and setting a $9 billion limit for acquisition cost.
The Harper government also commissioned KPMG to clarify the cost of 65 F-35s. In November 2012, the accounting firm came up with a total project cost of $45.8 billion. The Canadian dollar was then at US$1.01.
In November 2014, the Department of National Defence (DND) released an update on the F-35 procurement that estimated the same total project cost as KPMG, namely $45.8 billion. It arrived at that number using an exchange rate of US$0.92.In its update, DND also acknowledged that changes in the exchange rate were a “major, uncontrollable risk to the program cost estimate.” It went on to explain that an exchange rate of US$0.755 would raise the acquisition cost by approximately $1.7 billion and the sustainment cost by approximately $2.6 billion. Sustainment costs, incurred during major repairs and upgrades, are affected by the exchange rate because this work is conducted by the F-35’s manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, in the U.S.
By happenstance, the Canadian dollar has been hovering around US$0.755 for the last few weeks. This means that 65 F-35s would now cost $10.7 billion — well above the $9 billion acquisition cost limit set by the Harper government — and that the sustainment cost would now be $16.86 billion, up from $14.26 billion.
On the positive side, the operating cost for a fleet of F-35s has decreased by $1.15 billion (from $20.75 billion to $19.6 billion), due to a 30 percent drop in the cost of jet fuel since November 2014. According to DND, every 10 per cent reduction in the cost of fuel reduces the life-cycle operating cost by $382 million.
Here’s the bottom line: the total cost of the F-35 program is now $49 billion — an increase of $3.2 billion from the projections provided by KPMG in 2012 and DND in 2014. This includes all acquisition, sustainment and operating costs and assumes that development, disposal and attrition costs have not changed.
Is it any wonder that Conservative Leader Stephen Harper has avoided mentioning the need for new fighter jets recently? For this $3.2 billion in additional costs will require a tough decision by any prime minister committed to balanced budgets.
One option is to purchase only 54 F-35s, which is all that $9 billion can now buy. The problem is, the RCAF has stated that it requires a minimum of 65 fighter jets.
Another option is to divert the $3.2 billion from other military projects. But the Harper government has already cut defence spending to one per cent of GDP, the lowest level in half a century.A third option is to purchase a less expensive plane. For instance, a fleet of Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornets would cost about $6.5 billion at the current exchange rate, and would be significantly cheaper to operate and sustain than a fleet of F-35s.
Unlike Harper, who has not revealed his current plan, both opposition leaders are committed to a full competition for new aircraft to replace the CF-18s. Yet any such competition would be constrained by a budgetary ceiling and a baseline number of planes, which — given current circumstances — would preclude the F-35 from the outset.
It is certainly possible to envisage a competition involving one or more European-made fighter jets, but their already-high costs have also risen — due to a sharp decline in the value of the Canadian dollar against the Euro.
Although untendered procurements are far from optimal, a sole-source purchase of Super Hornets now seems likely. It might, in the end, deliver the very planes that Canada should have bought in a more organized and logical manner.
The fact is, Harper took a reckless approach to replacing the CF-18s. He could have held a fair competition at the outset, and bought a proven model of fighter jet on-time and on-budget. Instead, he reached for the latest and most expensive technology, took on a significant cost risk, and got burned.
August 20, 2015
July 13, 2015
Canada terminating $55M contract for two Ground Master 400 radars
Another multimillion-dollar military purchase has gone off the rails.The Harper government is terminating its contract with Thales Canada Ltd., which was to supply new radar units to support Canada's CF-18 fighter jet squadrons in Cold Lake, Alta., and Bagotville, Que.The deal signed in November 2010 was initially worth $55 million for two tactical-control radar systems, with delivery to begin in 2013. Thales won the tender over one other bidder.
Defence Department documents show costs had risen to more than $78 million by 2013. And by November last year, the Public Works Department was deep in negotiations with Thales to resolve problems."In February 2015, Canada and Thales reached agreement in principle to terminate this contract by mutual consent," said Public Works spokeswoman Annie Trepanier.
Final talks underway
Negotiations for a final termination agreement are still underway, and Public Works declined to provide any information about penalties, losses to the taxpayer or even the reason for the termination.
"Public Works is working with DND [Department of National Defence] to identify an appropriate path forward to meet their long-term capability needs on this project," Trepanier said in a terse email.
National Defence documents indicate the military had spent at least $6.5 million on the doomed project by 2013.The botched deal is yet another military procurement gone sour, alongside the more high-profile F-35 Stealth Fighter project, the Cyclone helicopter purchase to replace the aging Sea Kings, and used British submarines that have been sinkholes for maintenance and repair dollars.
The deal for two Ground Master 400 air-defence radars, a product launched by Thales in 2008, was to replace existing equipment acquired in 1991."Our government's investments are helping to ensure that our airmen and women have up-to-date equipment and infrastructure needed to perform their missions," Peter MacKay, then defence minister, said in early 2011 when announcing the deal.
MacKay said first deliveries were expected by February 2013, and that 40 jobs would be supported until final deliveries in September this year.
The France-based parent of Thales Canada, Thales Group, said its Ground Master 400 systems have been sold to Germany, Finland and Malaysia, among others.Canada's existing tactical radar systems are designed to be mobile, and have been deployed to Germany in 2000, Florida in 2008, and to Resolute Bay, Nunavut, in May this year, among other locations. Most of the time, they support Norad fighter-jet training at their home bases by providing a comprehensive picture of the skies up to 450 kilometres away
June 12, 2015
June 1, 2015
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