Dassault & Rafale Withdraw from CF-18 Replacement

By: Lee Berthiaume, The Canadian Press 

OTTAWA — The long effort to replace Canada’s ageing fighter jets took another surprise twist on Tuesday, as multiple sources revealed that French fighter-jet maker Dassault is pulling out of the multibillion-dollar competition.

Three newly delivered Rafale aircraft to the Egyptian Air Force (2017) 

The decision comes just over a week after the federal government published the military’s requirements for a replacement for Canada’s CF-18s as well as a draft process by which a winning supplier will be chosen.

Dassault had repeatedly pitched its Rafale aircraft to Canada over the years as successive governments in Ottawa have wrestled with selecting a new fighter jet. Dassault’s pitch included significant promises, including that it would assemble the planes in Canada.

But sources tell The Canadian Press that Dassault’s decision to withdraw was related to the fact France is not a member of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network, which counts the U.S., Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada as members. The five members have very specific requirements for how their equipment works together.

The French government, which had been closely working with Dassault as the most recent iteration of Canada’s fighter-replacement program has inched along over the past year, was preparing to notify Ottawa of the company’s withdrawal.

The move leaves four companies — U.S. aerospace giants Lockheed Martin and Boeing, European competitor Airbus and Swedish firm Saab — competing for the $19-billion contract to replace Canada’s 76 CF-18s with 88 new fighters.

A contract isn’t expected to be awarded until 2021 or 2022, with delivery of the first new aircraft slated for 2025. In the meantime, the government is planning to upgrade its CF-18s and buy 25 used fighters from Australia as a stopgap.

Dassault faced several significant challenges in meeting Canada’s requirements for a new fighter, said defence analyst David Perry of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, and while they weren’t insurmountable, they would have cost time and money.

Those challenges included meeting those Five-Eyes intelligence-sharing requirements, which Perry said put Dassault at a distinct disadvantage in the competition when compared to Lockheed Martin, Boeing and, to a certain degree, Airbus.

“For any of the non-American companies, solving the Five-Eyes interoperability issues is going to be challenging,” he said, noting that the U.S. in particular is very sensitive about data-sharing.

“And it costs companies a lot of money to mount and pursue bids. So if they think at this point in time that it’s not a realistic prospect, then pulling out is pretty understandable.”

That could explain why Dassault never established a strong presence in Canada during the many years when it was trying to sell the Rafale as a replacement for the CF-18, he added.

The CF-18s are about 35 years old. Canada’s attempts to buy a new fighter jet have dragged on for nearly a decade after the previous Conservative government announced in 2010 that Canada would buy 65 F-35s without a competition, with the first to be delivered in 2015.

But the Tories pushed the reset button in 2012 after the auditor general raised questions about the program and National Defence revealed the jets would cost $46 billion over their lifetimes.

After campaigning on a promise not to buy the F-35s, the Trudeau Liberals announced in November 2016 they would take their time with a competition to replace the CF-18s, and buy 18 “interim” Boeing Super Hornets without a competition because Canada needed more fighter jets badly.

But then Boeing’s trade dispute with Canadian rival Bombardier saw the Liberals scrap their plan to buy Super Hornets and instead begin talks to buy 18 used fighter jets from Australia. A contract for those used planes is expected in the coming weeks.

The formal competition to replace the CF-18s is scheduled to begin next spring.

Canada Quietly Pays $54 Million to remain in F-35 Consortium

The Canadian Press

Canada has quietly paid another $54 million toward the development of the F-35 stealth fighter jets, bringing its total investment in the controversial project to roughly half a billion dollars over the last 20 years.

The government is consulting with fighter-jet builders, including U.S. aerospace giant Boeing, before launching a formal competition early next year to decide on a replacement for the air force’s aging CF-18s.

Boeing remains on the fence about whether its Super Hornet will participate in the competition because of enduring questions about how the government will run it.

One concern is a new provision the government announced last year that aims to make it more difficult for companies that are deemed to be hurting the Canadian economy to win defence contracts.

The measure was announced at the height of Boeing’s bitter dispute with Canadian rival Bombardier, which has since been tossed out by a U.S. trade tribunal.

Boeing says it made its point with the challenge, and continues to work with the government with regards to other military contracts, but wants to see how the fighter-jet competition will be run before deciding whether to join.

Boeing Applies to be Part of CF-18 Replacement

The Canadian Press 

The federal government says Boeing has been approved to participate in an upcoming competition to replace Canada's CF-18s, though the U.S. aerospace giant says it still hasn't decided whether it will actually bid.

A F18 Boeing-made Super Hornet creates a vapour cone as it flies at a transonic speed while doing a flyby of the USS Eisenhower in this 2015 photo. Boeing has applied to be chosen to supply Canada with its new fleet of 88 fighter jets. (Mark Wilson/Pool Photo via The Associated Press)

Public Services and Procurement Canada says Boeing, which makes the Super Hornet jet, is one of five companies approved as potential bidders in the multibillion-dollar competition to deliver 88 new aircraft.

Boeing had remained on the fence when asked whether it would throw its hat in the ring, saying it was waiting to see how the government would run the competition, which will formally kick off next year.

The comments appeared to be in response to the government's plan to change future competitions for military equipment, including fighter jets, to penalize companies deemed to be hurting Canada's economic interests.

The proposed change is believed to be a direct response to Boeing's complaints against Bombardier over the latter's C Series passenger jet, which were largely thrown out last month by the U.S. International Trade Commission.

Still, even though Boeing has been allowed to participate, company spokesman Scott Day says the company is continuing to monitor the process and still hasn't decided whether to submit a formal bid.
"Boeing values Canada as a customer and supplier-partner for both our commercial and defence businesses," said Day. "We continue to believe that the Super Hornet is the low-risk, low-cost approach and has all the advanced capabilities the Royal Canadian Air Force needs now and well into the future."

The firms eligible to take part are:

• Lockheed-Martin, which makes the F-35 stealth fighter
• Boeing, which makes the F-18 Super Hornet
• Airbus, which makes the Eurofighter
• Saab AB, which makes the Gripen
• Dassault Aviation, which makes the Rafale

F-35 Dominates At Red Flag With 15:1 Kill Rate

Lara Seligman | Aerospace Daily & Defense Report - Aviation Week 

The U.S. Air Force’s F-35A made its debut at the toughest Red Flag yet, and not only dominated the air space but made the legacy aircraft in the force package even deadlier, according to pilots.

The F-35’s participation in the Air Force’s capstone training event at Nellis AFB, Nevada, which is known as one of the world’s most realistic and challenging air-to-air combat exercises, marked a crucial test for the fifth-generation fighter. This year, pilots went up against the most aggressive threat laydown ever seen at a Red Flag: more surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), more jamming, and more red air, said Lt. Col. George Watkins, 34th Fighter Squadron commander.
The exercise began Jan. 23 and will continue until Feb. 10.

Despite the stepped up threat, pilots lost only one F-35 to every 15 aggressors killed in action—an impressive kill ratio for an aircraft that is not designed as an air-to-air fighter.
Where before an F-16 would not even see the advanced threat on the battlespace—the blue forces would take them out ahead of time with standoff weapons—now with the F-35 added to the mix, pilots can detect and pinpoint multiple threats at once, Watkins said.

Faced with three or four different advanced SAMs in one scenario, F-35 pilots gather and fuse data from a multitude of sources. Then the stealthy aircraft slips undetected within range and takes out the threat. If the F-35 runs out of munitions, F-22 and fourth-generation pilots still want the aircraft to stay in the vicinity, vacuuming up targeting information and transferring it to the rest of the force.
“Before where we would have one advanced threat and we would put everything we had—F-16s, F-15s, F-18s, missiles, we would shoot everything we had at that one threat just to take it out—now we are seeing three or four of those threats at a time,” Watkins said. “Just between [the F-35] and the [F-22] Raptor we are able to geo-locate them, precision-target them, and then we are able to bring the fourth-generation assets in behind us after those threats are neutralized. It’s a whole different world out there for us now.”

The F-35 and the air superiority F-22, in particular, make a deadly team, the pilots said.
“When you pair the F-22and the F-35 like together with the fourth-generation strikers behind us, we’re really able to dominate the air space over the Nellis test and training range,” Watkins said.

As of Feb. 3, 13 F-35s from Hill AFB, Utah, had flown 126 missions and only lost three or four aircraft. They had not lost a single sortie to maintenance. Although there have been issues with the F-35’s 3i software load—the aircraft’s systems occasionally shut down and need to be rebooted and there were also problems with clutter and repeating targets—none of the aircraft at Red Flag have experienced any system failures. That is a huge improvement over the F-16s, Watkins said.

“It’s been pretty eye-watering here for me to go out every day and have every single mission system operating,” Watkins said. “Tie that sensor fusion and that situational awareness with the survivability of the platform [and] it’s really a game-changer.”

RCAF to Face Challenge with Old and New fighter Fleets

By: Murray Brewster, CBC News

A team of U.S. warplane experts has been invited to brief Canadian officials on what the Royal Canadian Air Force can expect when it takes delivery of a fleet of Super Hornet jets.

The briefing, expected to take place this week at the Canadian embassy in Washington, D.C., is crucial for the Liberal government as it grapples with introducing a new fighter jet into service and its impact on Canada's air defences.

The Trudeau government has begun talks with the Pentagon for a foreign military sale of 18 Super Hornets, at a cost of $5-$7 billion.

The Super Hornet is a larger, more advanced version of the CF-18, which the Liberal government hopes to replace entirely starting in the early 2020s.

"It's the same kind of jet with much different stuff connected to it," said Capt. Steve Boyle, wing commodore of the U.S Navy Strike Fighter Wing, Atlantic.

Read More:
Stopgap Super Hornet purchase could cost $5–$7B
New Liberal policy means there aren't enough fighter jets to go around

CBC News had the opportunity to speak with U.S. Navy pilots and commanders last week about what the RCAF can expert operating different generations of what is arguably the same fighter.

It will take a CF-18 pilot about three months to learn to fly the new fighter, while training an entire squadron of pilots will take about six months — relatively short time frames, which is considered one of the advantages of the Super Hornets over the rival F-35.

"From the pilot's perspective, it's easy to fly a legacy Hornet [like a CF-18] in the morning and a Super Hornet in the afternoon," said Boeing executive Steve Brennan, who commanded the same fighter wing as Boyle over a decade ago.

The two aircraft have different maintenance needs but Brennan and other Boeing executives said the Super Hornet costs less to operate than any other tactical aircraft in the U.S. military.

Maintenance workers service a U.S. Navy Super Hornet. (CBC News/Murray Brewster)

Even so, there will be extra costs for the RCAF — an important point because the Trudeau government promised to properly fund the air force, something that did not happen under the previous Conservative government.

One of the pressing questions on the minds of Canadian defence officials is so-called interoperability with allies, mostly the Americans.

The U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Marine Corps and eventually the U.S,. Navy will all fly the advanced F-35 stealth fighter. So will many of Canada's other allies.
Data sharing

Many of the concerns relate to the ability of the F-35 to share electronic data and surveillance with older designs, such as the Super Hornet, said former Canadian chief of defence staff, retired general Tom Lawson.

"New aircraft like the F-35 come furnished with some residual ability to be interoperable with legacy aircraft such as the F-18 and other older fighters — a responsibility the designers of new systems share with those who maintain and upgrade older systems," said Lawson, a longtime supporter of the stealth fighter purchase who used to work for F-35 maker Lockheed Martin.

Equipment and software upgrades will be crucial for the jets to maintain "as much relevancy as possible," he said.

The issue of data sharing is crucial for the modern battlefield, said Ricardo Traven, a former Canadian fighter pilot, now working for Boeing.

A U.S. Navy flight line technician prepares a Super Hornet for flight.

The Super Hornet does have the ability to receive certain data and target imaging from the F-35 and the F-22 Raptor, but there is need for improvement.

Traven placed the onus on Lockheed Martin to ensure better protocols are developed, not only for other aircraft but for communication with ships and ground troops.

"It's always like trying to start a monopoly by saying: 'OK, the only way to communicate with us is if you are one of us,'" said Traven.

"The reality is, the whole world isn't going to be one of them." Traven says they're going to have to use common protocols with the rest of the world "or they're not going to be communicating with anyone."

Boyle said the U.S. Navy is also seized with the issue and has been pushing the Pentagon to ensure there is a solution because the Super Hornet is slated to keep operating with the navy, alongside the F-35, until at least 2040.
Tainted fighter debate

The previous Conservative government, under Stephen Harper, said the F-35 was the "best" choice to defend the country's sovereignty and fight in overseas missions.

The Liberals disagreed, and during the last federal election campaign promised to buy a "cheaper" aircraft and plow the savings back into rebuilding the navy — a plan Harper described as "living in a dream world."

The recent decision to wait until the early 2020s to fully replace the current fleet of CF-18s and to sole-source the purchase of up to 18 Super Hornets in the interim almost certainly means there will be no savings.

Proponents of the F-35 have argued the fighter is a generational leap forward in terms of technology and the ability to operate seamlessly with Canada's allies, and provides added protection because its stealth technology makes it less visible on enemy radar than so-called legacy fighters, such as the Super Hornet.

Sajjan: F-35 consortium agreement never seen as commitment to buy

By TIM NAUMETZ, The Hill Times 

A 2002 agreement Canada signed with the U.S. and seven other countries for development of the F-35 stealth warplane was never viewed by the partners as “a commitment to buy the F-35,” Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan’s office told The Hill Times.

Meanwhile, a leading expert on military affairs said the Liberal government could make good on its 2015 election promise to exclude the F-35 stealth attack plane as it wrestles with the need to replace Canada’s aging CF-18 fighter jets, but the decision would inevitably anger “a lot of powerful people in the Pentagon.”

In the wake of reports the government may be considering a sole-source acquisition of new fighter planes to replace at last part of Canada’s fleet of roughly 80 1980s-vintage CF-18 Hornets, University of British Columbia professor Michael Byers told The Hill Times Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) and his cabinet could either hold a competition, as Mr. Trudeau promised in the election campaign, or acquire more modern versions of the Boeing CF-18 without inviting other bids.

“Doing a fleet extension of Canada’s existing planes, Canada would buy a number of the latest model of the same plane,” Mr. Byers said, in reference to the fact Canada initially acquired the U.S. Boeing Corp. aircraft, under a previous Liberal government, coincidentally led by Justin Trudeau’s father, then prime minister Pierre Trudeau, in 1982.

“It would be like, let’s say you had a taxi fleet of Toyota Priuses that were all from 2010 and you decided to buy a sizeable number of 2016s, you’re buying the latest model of the same equipment, which means that your mechanics and your pilots don’t need to undergo the same degree of re-training,” Mr. Byers said in an interview this week.

Under his scenario, either through a sole-sourced contract with Boeing or a competition to replace part of the aging fleet whose life span was extended by the previous government to 2025 the year before the federal election, the Liberal government could still have an option in later years to acquire a smaller number of the new generation F-35 aircraft, sophisticated to the point some avionic experts refer to it as a “flying computer.”

Development delays, however, have been extensive.

U.S. Air Force news releases this month reported one of its major bases has yet to declare F-35As, the same model plane Canada was set to buy, fully combat operational.

Hill Air Force Base, Utah, also reported its wheel-shop technicians found a hydraulic tire-changing machine Lockheed Martin had supplied in 2015, along with the base’s first batch of F-35 planes, was designed to require four technicians to lift one wheel onto the changer.

The shop adapted its legacy changer to fit the heavy F-35 wheel.

Furthermore, the Eglin Air Force Base in Florida reported on May 24 that its technicians saved $84,000 by using locally manufactured parts and tools rather than those available from Lockheed Martin.

Mr. Byers noted Australia has already beefed up its similarly aging F-18 Hornet fighter jet fleet by acquiring Boeing F-18 “Super Hornets,” a more modern version of the original F-18, while waiting for the delayed Lockheed Martin F-35 to reach full operationally ready levels, as well as production levels that provide economy of scale prices Lockheed Martin promised as the plane was in early development and testing stages.

Canada in 2002 signed on with a consortium of eight other countries after the U.S. launched the Pentagon-led Joint Strike Fighter Program.

The previous year, the Pentagon conducted a prototype competition that defence giant Lockheed Martin Corp. won over Boeing Corp., for development and production of the so-called next generation of fighter jet warplanes.

In 2010, the former Conservative government announced Canada would exercise its option of acquiring a fleet of the costly planes—a total of 65 F-35 fighters with no timeline yet set for the actual purchase—but the Conservatives put the acquisition on hold in 2012 after a raging controversy over costs that had been withheld from Parliament prior to the 2011 federal election.

Former prime minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Heritage, Alta.) and his Conservatives concluded an analysis of options from among a range of fighter jet makers in 2014, including Lockheed Martin, but Parliament has received no update on the estimated cost of acquiring and operating a fleet of 65 F-35s since the last government report that year.

The 2014 update estimated a cost of $45.8 billion for acquisition, maintenance and sustainment over the fleet’s 35-year lifecycle, and the estimated price tag has since risen by at least $3 billion for acquisition and operating costs alone, due to the Canadian dollar’s lower value in exchange with the U.S. dollar.

Liberal Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan last week did not rule out the possibility that the government is set to begin replacing the declining CF-18 fleet without competitive bidding.

“The CF-18 will be extended to 2025,” Mr. Sajjan (Vancouver South, B.C.) told the House of Commons on June 7.

“We do need replacements, they should have been replaced a long time ago, we have to start the process soon because our fighters have been flying for some time, they should have been replaced,” Mr. Sajjan said.
Canada intends to pay instalment to F-35 consortium

In response to the speculation about sole-sourcing, a Lockheed Martin official raised a requirement that the Canadian aerospace industry would be able to bid on future aircraft sustainment and contracts only if Canada acquires some of the planes.

Mr. Sajjan responded Tuesday by pointing out that none of the original members of the Joint Strike Fighter Consortium are required to buy any F-35s, and Canada’s participation in the development of the plane through the consortium has led to $743 million in contacts for the Canadian aerospace industry.

“Canada remains a member of the Joint Strike Fighter program and has not notified the JSF Office about any changes to our participation,” Mr. Sajjan’s press secretary, Jordan Owens, said on behalf of Mr. Sajjan in response to questions from The Hill Times.

Ms. Owens said the government still owes an instalment to the consortium, but intends to pay it.

“To date, our participation in the JSF MOU (Joint Strike Fighter Memorandum of Understanding) has allowed companies in Canada to secure US $743 million in contracts,” the email from Ms. Owens said.

“New skills and technologies gained through access to the JSF Program have helped position Canadian industry to take advantage of other advanced aerospace and defence projects; it has always been clear that participation in the JSF MOU is not a commitment to buy the F-35.”

Canada currently has four Canadian Forces personnel assigned to the Joint Strike Fighter Office near Washington, D.C.

The Liberal campaign promise to hold a competition while excluding consideration of Lockheed Martin has come under severe criticism, including from Alan Williams, the former Department of National Defence procurement chief who was with DND when Canada joined the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program in 2002.

Mr. Byers said the Liberals, now having delayed a decision for seven months, could have delivered on their campaign promise by either sole-sourcing a CF-18 fleet extension with Boeing or releasing a competitive request for proposals whose maximum cost and desired type of fighter jet, along with required regional industrial benefits, would have ruled out the F-35.

The DND statement of operating requirements for the new plane could have established a maximum unit price, lower than the costly single-engine F-35, or a need for two engines, which the legacy Hornets as well as the modern version of the Boeing fighters have.

“There was nothing inherently difficult with the Liberal position in the campaign, but obviously it would require certainly annoying Lockheed Martin and by extension a lot of powerful people in the Pentagon,” Mr. Byers said.

He said the Liberals still have the option of sole-sourcing the Boeing plane, with no competition from any other bidders.

“That is my understanding, you are able to do a sole-source procurement, we do sole-source procurement for lots of things,” Mr. Byers said, referring to Conservative government procurement of long-range jet transport planes from Boeing, as well as short-haul cargo aircraft from Lockheed Martin.

“You can do this, and obviously it’s easier politically to do that when you’re simply acquiring the same model of equipment, that same type of equipment, in effect the same but a newer model,” Mr. Byers said. “It (the Super Hornet) is not a totally new plane, it’s based on the same air frame and a lot of the avionics are based on 30 years of experience and technological development at Boeing.”

The NDP has been insisting on an open competition to replace the CF-18 Hornets, with cost and capability among the required parameters.
“Either of those aircrafts might have pros and cons, but the only way to make that evaluation is to have an open and transparent competition,” said NDP MP Erin Weir.

“One of the things I find striking is that the federal government has not even put forward what those parameters would be for a competition,” said Mr. Weir (Regina-Lewvan, Sask.)

“We challenge the government, they say there haven’t been any decisions, there’s still a possibility of an open competition, but in seven months they haven’t taken any steps towards initiating such a competition,” Mr. Weir said in an interview.

“Certainly I would agree that one of those first steps is to lay out parameters of what the government is looking for, in terms of our defence requirements.”

tnaumetz@hilltimes.com
The Hill Times