OzairAirbus, Boeing indicate they may pull out of Canada fighter jet race – sources
Airbus has now formally withdrawn from the competition citing NORAD requirements as well as a relaxation of the industrial portion of the contract as the main reasons.
[INDENT]
One of the companies in the race to replace Canada’s aging fleet of CF-18 jet fighters has dropped out of the competition.Airbus Defence and Space, which was pitching the Eurofighter Typhoon, notified the Liberal government Friday that it was not going to bid.
The decision was made after a detailed review of the tender issued by the federal government in mid-July.
The move leaves only three companies in the contest: Lockheed Martin Canada with its F-35; Boeing with the Super Hornet; and Saab, which is offering an updated version of its Gripen fighter.
Simon Jacques, president of Airbus Defence and Space Canada, made a point of saying the company appreciated the professional dealings it had with defence and procurement officials.
“Airbus Defence and Space is proud of our longstanding partnership with the Government of Canada, and of serving our fifth home country’s aerospace priorities for over three decades,” Jacques said in a statement. “Together we continue in our focus of supporting the men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces, growing skilled aerospace jobs across the country and spurring innovation in the Canadian aerospace sector.”
Airbus decided to withdraw after looking at the NORAD security requirements and the cost it imposes on companies outside of North America.
It also said it was convinced that the industrial benefits regime, as written in the tender, “does not sufficiently value the binding commitments the Typhoon Canada package was willing to make.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/airbus-canada-fighters-1.5265665
[/INDENT] This shouldn’t be a great surprise to anyone, especially as Dassault withdrew for the same NORAD security issues. Meeting NORAD requirements was always going to favour the US jets. I expect that Saab will eventually withdraw as well and it will remain a Boeing Versus LM contest.
Ozairi’m sorry for the lazy question. What are the Warhead weight on SM3 and SM6 missiles?
62kg continuous rod.
https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/sm-specs.htm
Ozairam watching G20 summit right now
Donald Trump says he will not withhold sanctions and stuff
so Turkey can get both its F-35s and S-400 Missiles
Which is great for Trump and Erdogan but Trump doesn’t control export of the aircraft, Congress does. They have already included wording to prevent delivery of the aircraft in legislation.
OzairYou should consider the environment in which each aircraft was used…
Termperate/nordic european climate for the Draken vs harsh desertic conditions for the Mirage… No machine like sand.Also to be considered is the fact that the Mirage was operated in war time, when safety is not first priority anymore.
Kovy the RAAF, which I am referring to, did not operate in sandy conditions nor in warlike operations with the Mirage. The aircraft operated from Williamtown and Butterworth for the vast majority of its life and only being operated in Darwin, a marginally sandy environment, for the last few years. Of the 116 aircraft Australia acquired they lost 43 to crashes with 14 aircrew killed…
OzairSome Mirage operators had a good safety record with the aircraft, some didn’t. Same goes with the F-104. If the SAAB has a substantially better range than the Mirage, well then it might have been a better choice for the RAAF alright – but there are other factors to take into consideration. Perhaps Sweden liked to impose restrictions on how their arms exports were to be used?
What I also find ironic was the fact that the RAAF were not so happy with the Mirage’s Atar powerplant and seriously had plans to swap it with the RR Avon in production. The Draken,of course, already came with the Avon fitted.
I doubt Sweden would have restricted RAAF use of the Draken especially given the US content in the aircraft.
Yes the Atar was a major issue for RAAF mirage III but they also weren’t going to put the money forward to make that happen, hence they created some of these issues for themselves.
Ilove the Starfighter…
The RAAF determined that the Starfighter, probably rightly, was too complex and costly for them to operate.
Nothing against the looks of the aircraft but for the RAAF use case it clearly wasn’t the right choice.
OzairDraken had terrible safety record in the first decade of its operation. Only when they began superstall training in the seventies it became acceptable.
I can’t find any info on the Draken safety record. Do you have a link to the issues?
The other advantage the Draken had was a big radar ideal for the intercept mission the RAAF envisioned in the early 60s.
OzairI always thought the Mirage was a great success in the RAAF – served for almost a quarter of a century. What was wrong with the Mirage, why was it so inferior to the Draken? I can’t see any outstanding problems?
Too many crashes for a start. Draken had a much better safety record and a longer range which would have better suited the australian mission.
Both were still better choices than F-104.
OzairRAAF made the choice between Mirage 3 and Draken amongst a few others. I’m not aware of any comparative analysis done at the time but the Mirage won the selection.
In the end mirage was probably the wrong choice, it simply wasn’t capable of operating in Australian conditions and to the roles the RAAF required.
Draken for air intercept and A-4 for ground attack would have been the better choice.
OzairFourteen operational sorties from the six jets based in Cyprus since the 16th of June. That is now Israel, the US and UK who have declared use of the jet in combat, albeit in the US and UK case in a very low threat environment.
Britain’s new F35 stealth jets used on operations for the first time
Britain’s new F35 fighter jets have been used on operations for the first time, Defence Secretary Penny Mordaunt has revealed.
The first operational sorties were flown on June 16 from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, targeting the last remnants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).
The six stealth fighters based in Cyprus have conducted a total of 14 operational sorties over Syria and Iraq following a six-week training deployment in the country from May.
Speaking after sitting in the cockpit of the one of jets, Ms Mordaunt said: “I am very proud that these are now flying in defence and are projecting the UK’s national interest.
“This is a fantastic new aircraft, it is amazing. It’s doing so well out here on these operations… it’s a really historic moment.”
…
OzairThat is all part of the mission planning. It will all come down to perceived threat vs available assets. This is why the whole “we only need ‘x%’ 5th gen and the rest can be 4th gen” argument is a fallacy since you will not know what you need… till you need it. It’s better to have it and not need it, then need it and not have it.
Just look at the start of the 1st Gulf War, Package Q, etc to see all of the planning that goes into it.
In addition, the F-35 has on-board route-planning that allows not only itself, but the rest of the network to respond to popup threats and reroute or assign a response as needed.
Sure Spud, I am very familiar with the ATO process and hence the reason why there are too many variables in this to make blanket statements.
OzairIf the presence of popup threats are a threat, then escort F-35s will also likely be present to minimize the likelihood of follow-on F-35s having to dump external stores.
Probably but that is also dependant on the threat, target priority, the availability of assets, length of campaign, how the ATO is put together etc. Too many variables given the hypothetical nature of the discussion.
OzairJust a limited part of every mission needs full stealth. In the later timeline of every conflict it can operated like 4th generation fighter with external loads.
While that is true I think in a near peer conflict the likelihood is that F-35s will stay in stealth configuration a lot longer than most people expect. In the presence of potential pop up threats dumping the tanks and pylons to return to a stealth config will burn through tank and pylon stocks very quick. Unmanned tankers will also likely proliferate the battlespace and make external tanks less necessary.
Non US operators who have less tanker assets may find the tanks more appealing in a similar way that the US never adopted the conformal tanks for the F-16 while they see far more extensive use with other operators.
Ozairi understand that. On the other hand, they were promised so much….
Given the aircraft is planned to be in service with its primary customer until 2072 I think there is enough time for them to meet the contractual commitment…
Ozairlooks a lot nicer than that tailless design from last year
Will be interesting to see some actual details on the concept, like whether it will have an internal bay with enough size to carry a decent payload.
OzairBlock 4 upgrade
Interesting, clearly drop tanks are back in the mix for BLK 4…
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