Top Aces, a privately owned Montreal-based advanced airborne training contractor, is providing training to RCAF pilots using their fleet of McDonnell Douglas A-4N Skyhawk trainers. The aircraft type is being used for fighter lead-in training to prepare new pilots for the aging CF-18 Hornets and their soon-to-arrive replacements, the CF-35 Lightning. The RCAF has been without a suitable lead-in training aircraft since the BAE Systems CT-155 Hawks were retired in 2023.
Top Aces, founded in 2000 by three former RCAF CF-18 pilots, currently boasts a fleet comprising 60 Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jets, three Learjet 35s, 22 McDonnell Douglas A-4 Skyhawks and 29 General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcons, the latter purchased from the Israeli Air Force. The F-16s are owned by Top Aces Corp., a U.S. subsidiary based in Arizona. The F-16s retain their Israeli air force paint scheme. In 2022 Top Aces merged with U.S. company Blue Air Training of Las Vegas, Nevada, a smaller company engaged in military pilot training.
The company uses the A-4Ns and F-16s, and others, to provide what is referred to as Advanced Adversary Air (or ADAIR) training. The aircraft are painted in colour schemes associated with potential adversaries and their pilots play the role of aggressor, adopting techniques used by the potential adversaries, to train Canadian and other NATO and allied pilots. The company also has a base in Germany.
In a contract signed in 2024 with the Canadian government, Top Aces began training Ukrainian pilots on the type in advance of that country’s acquisition of a fleet of F-16s for use against Russia.
Watch this week’s featured video to learn more about Top Aces.