Sharon Hobson JDW Correspondent
Ottawa
The Canadian Air Force is continuing to cut daily operations because of budget constraints. Over the next three years, the service will reduce its holdings from 505 aircraft to 282 aircraft and reduce the yearly flying rates (YFR) for the remainder.
Brig Gen Joe Sharpe, who was Director General Air Force Development when he spoke to Jane’s Defence Weekly, says “about three-and-a-half years ago we started a process to try and find enough money in the system to modernise, particularly the CF-18 and the CP-140 Aurora aircraft”.
A study group looked at the service’s mandatory commitments, such as those to NATO and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and then determined what “the minimum number of aircraft and crews and readiness levels would be to meet those commitments at a minimum level”. The result of that study and various follow-on analyses, is “what one could call the minimum force structure required to meet our commitments”, Gen Sharpe said.
The Boeing CF-18 fleet will be reduced from 122 to 80 fighters. To retain the number of leadership positions within its fighter group, however, the service will keep four operational squadrons, but reduce the number of aircraft in each from 16-18 to 12.
The Lockheed Martin CP-140/A fleet will be reduced from 21 to 16 aircraft, and the Sikorsky CH-124A/B Sea King fleet from 30 to 28. The number of Bell CH-146 Griffin utility helicopters will be reduced from 99 to approximately 75. The fate of nine Griffins used for combat support has to be decided.
The seven DHC CC-115 Buffalo and 27 Canadair CT/CE-133 Silver Star aircraft will be retired as will 119 of 136 Canadair CT-114 Tutor jets (JDW 8 September 1999). The service will keep 17 Tutors for the Snowbirds Air Demonstration Team.
“It’s not necessarily a question of what we’re doing with the airplane, it’s a question of what do we have to do with the airplane,” Gen Sharpe said. “There are some things that we are doing because we have the airplane, not because we have to do it.” The air force has decided to “back off a little bit” and put the money and resources into its hard commitments.
The number of Lockheed Martin CC-130 Hercules transport aircraft will stay at 32, but the YFR will be reduced from 22,600 to 21,000 hours. The YFR for the five Airbus CC-150 transports, however, will be increased from 4,100 to 6,500. Gen Sharpe said: “That is a financial decision driven by the reality that we contract all the maintenance for the Airbus fleet with Canadian/Air Canada.” The air force is contracting, however, for more hours than it has been using, so it now intends to increase “the flying rate on the Airbus because we’ve already paid for it in terms of spare parts and maintenance”.
Despite the reduced hours Gen Sharpe said the modernised aircraft will provide more capability. He concedes in the short term there will be a capability gap while the aircraft are modernised. “That is the price we’re paying for having waited so long to do some of these modernisation projects,” Gen Sharpe said
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January 31, 2001 at 6:27 pm