Prime Minister-designate Justin Trudeau is showing every sign of following through on his pledge to cancel Canada’s participation in the F-35 program and that will likely mean a three-way race for a less expensive and less capable aircraft to replace the CF-18.
The bonus is that the RCAF will probably end up with more airplanes.
Ruling out the F-35 (there may not be a legal way to keep it out of the bidding, however) effectively leaves the F/A-18 Super Hornet, Dassault’s Rafale and the Eurofighter as contenders for the contract. However, without the F-35 in the mix, Saab might rethink entering the race with its updated Gripen NG.
None of those options has the combination of stealth, surveillance and weapons capabilities that the F-35 and some other fifth generation designs from Russia and China have but Trudeau has said he doesn’t think Canada needs a fifth generation fighter because Canada won’t need to attack anything.
As if to punctuate that premise, one of Trudeau’s first acts after the election was to tell U.S. President Barack Obama that Canada will cease participation in the bombing campaign against ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria. That likely means the Aurora long-range patrol missions will also be halted.
There was no mention of the need to replace fixed wing search and rescue aircraft during the election but that will also be on the new PM’s plate.
RCAF Kingfishers Finally in Service
After years of delays, replacements for the RCAF’s fleet of Search & Rescue (SAR) de Havilland Canada CC-115 Buffalos are finally operational on Canada’s West Coast. The Airbus CC-295 Kingfishers first began arriving at CFB […]
Nolinor Orders Next-Gen Cargo Aircraft
Quebec-based Nolinor Aviation has placed an order with California-based Natilus for multiple Kona aircraft, a blended-wing-body (BWB) cargo aircraft designed for operation on rough, unpaved runways. With a 3.8-tonne payload, the pusher-configured twin turboprop is […]
Flying the Maple Leaf
While many people find novel ways to display pride in their country, pilot Mike Jones took to the sky over Southern Ontario in his Grob G 115 to trace a near-perfect outline of a Canadian […]
Some of Last Week’s Highlights in Brief
Norwegian Air Traffic Service provider Avinor is expanding its remotely operated control tower program. Madrid, Spain-based Indra has contracted Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace AS to deliver a further seven airport systems that will be operated […]
Top Aces Training RCAF Pilots
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 […]
Some of the Last Two Weeks’ Highlights in Brief
The Transportation Safety Board has dispatched an investigation team to Halifax in response to the Dec. 28 incident of a collapsed left-side landing gear of a PAL Dash 8-Q400 passenger turboprop at that city’s Stanfield […]
Some of Last Week’s Highlights in Brief
Vancouver Island’s Sealand Flight, a flight training unit based in Campbell River, announced the first solo flight by a student pilot in a battery-electric airplane in Canada. The December 20th announcement named 18-year-old Catherine Check […]
2023 Chinook Crash – Accident Investigation Report Released
The RCAF’s Directorate of Flight Safety cited “unrecognized downward acceleration and environmental conditions” as factors in the nighttime crash of an RCAF Boeing CH-147F Chinook helicopter in the Ottawa River that resulted in the deaths […]
Some of this Week’s Other Highlights in Brief
Parkland Corporation, an Alberta-based multi-national company with a refinery in Burnaby, British Columbia, announced last week that it has successfully produced Canada’s first batch of “low-carbon aviation fuel (LCAF)”. Air Canada was the buyer of […]
New RCAF Career and Education Opportunities
Canada’s air force is embarking on a pair of initiatives aimed at attracting new recruits for key positions. The first is the adoption into regular force employment of the Air Operations Support Technician (AOS Tech). […]
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