What's Canada Buying? January 4, 2013

• F-35 Tug o’ War (1)  “The call is out for five American and European fighter jet manufacturers to polish up their sales pitches and give the Canadian government a ring.  Following the mid-December update of F-35 cost estimates and re-setting of the process to replace the old CF-18 fleet, Public Works Department officials have written to Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Dassault Aviation, EADS Eurofighter and Saab Group to say that the government will soon ask them what they could offer as the new mainstay for Canada’s air force.  “A key component of this undertaking is a market analysis of fighter aircraft currently in production or scheduled to be in production,” said Deputy Minister Michelle d’Auray in the letter sent with little fanfare on Dec. 27. “Your company’s participation in this endeavour will greatly assist the Government of Canada in its assessment of options for a fighter replacement capability well into the 21st Century.” ….”
  
• F-35 Tug o’ War (2)  The Defence Minister in a year-end interview  ” …. Right now, before we have spent a dime on the acquisition of F-35, because we have not, over 70 companies have won nearly $450 million in contracts to build this leading aircraft. The issue around the cost, I want to be very clear, the cost to buy this aircraft is $9 billion. I would suggest to you that any new fighter aircraft is going to be in that ball park. That’s the price we have set aside to buy a replacement for the CF-18s ….  I’ll say it again, we have not spent a dime on the acquisition cost. We will not spend more than $9 billion on the acquisition cost ….We’ve looked at other aircraft before, let’s be clear about that, but we’re going to do it again. To increase confidence for both the Auditor General but most importantly the Canadian public, we’ve asked that it be done independently. So we have people with technical experience and auditing experience; people who are arms length from the government itself to look at what are the other available aircraft on the market. What are the other planes that would suit Canada’s needs and still be in this price envelope ….”
• F-35 Tug o’ War (3a)  Meanwhile, even National Public Radio in the U.S. is paying more attention to this one.
• F-35 Tug o’ War (3b)  Ooopsie…. “U.S. builders of America’s most advanced combat aircraft, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, are still frantically rushing to put in place cutting edge technology that would secure the aircraft’s avionics from Chinese hacker attacks, U.S. intelligence sources told ISSSource ….”
• July 2012:  CF cancels Medium Support Vehicle System (MSVS) project.  January 2013:  CF seeks new MSVS ideas from industry.
• Mark Collins on contracting out search and rescue chopper services  “It’s good enough for the UK’s rotary SAR. But it would never fly in Canada given the almost pathological importance we attach to the federal government’s being in charge of aerial (RCAF) and maritime (CCG) search and rescue, e.g. see here and here. Moreover the Canadian Forces would contest bitterly any effort to relieve them of this warm and fuzzy–but non-military–mission ….”
• Wanted:  someone to build ANOTHER East Coast rappel tower, this time at Yarmouth’s armoury for ~$195K - similar projects also sought in Debert and Sydney, Nova Scotia and Stephenville, Newfoundland.
  
• Wanted:  someone to build an outdoor obstacle course at Aldershot for ~$367K
  
• Wanted:  “Navigational Database Services” and “Computer Flight Planning” for 1 Canadian Air Division
  
• Wanted:  UAV cameras for Suffield’s defence research facility
  
• Wanted:  2000 Arctic candle holders