Towards the end of Chrétien’s reign, Martin despised him. The Cyclone choice was most likely forced upon Martin by Chrétien loyalists in the Liberal party. Some blame for the delay is on Martin who as finance minister at the time claimed money wasn’t available until later.
The RCAF are getting 14 P-8s. The balance are going to Germany to increase their fleet to 8.
By bad, just so happy to see a purchase I stopped reading at the end of the headline! 14 works for me.
The announcement on the Hill Times (paywall restricted) had words to the effect that it was expected the government would exercise the option for other aircraft at a later date, making it seem likely the remaining 2 would come in a future lot. Probably some kind of cash management exercise to push some of the cost further out. The CAF is famous for doing that. The project budget is funded for 16, so I expect there will be a follow on announcement in a few years, but regardless, this announcement is good news. Combined with the 11 MQ-9Bs, these purchases represent a huge increase in capability.
Absolutely agree even if the extra two don’t happen. Hopefully the other two happen though. Funding for this and other kit are always vulnerable to cuts by pollies for electoral needs but the geopolitical realities are slowly beginning to sink in and this tactic will be increasingly difficult to sell to even our electorate.
www.flightglobal.com
Canada retires Hawk jet trainers without replacements identified
The Royal Canadian Air Force says its fighter training squadron has entered a "period of hiatus" after the service retired its fleet of BAE Systems CT-155 Hawk trainer jets.
CF155 the Hawk trainer is officially retired. This means that for the interim the Canadian Air Force will train fast jet jockeys in foreign countries.
Eventually they will have to buy new trainers. Top picks are Either T50 Golden Eagles from South Korea or Boeing/Saab T7 Red Hawks.
Seems an odd decision on so many levels. First of all the Hawks aren’t that old. I don’t know how heavily used they have been but when you look at how long other countries have been using their Hawks it seems like they should be able to get more than 24 years.
Not really, not when one looks at the situation. The RCAF Hawks entered service in 2000 IIRC, so they have been in service for ~24 years already, and I believe they were designed to have 25-30 year service lives. Going by the RAAF Hawk 127 (the RCAF operate Hawk 115), Australia did start looking at replacing or upgrading their Hawk LIF's starting around 2012 and I do recall there being reports of cracks being found in the Australian Hawk airframes. Canada also started an initial look at replacing the Canadian Hawks around the same time.
Perhaps your PM was planning to do a Hellen Clark on your combat aircraft.
I am sure he would love to but he knows the US would never stand for that.Perhaps your PM was planning to do a Hellen Clark on your combat aircraft.
One of the other things I came across (still trying to confirm if accurate) is that the Hawk 120-series aircraft had some design changes to their wings, fuselage and tail to increase fatigue life when compared to older Hawk aircraft. Given that the RCAF Hawks are 115, then it does appear that any replacement LIFT the RCAF ends up getting, should have been ordered a decade ago, if not more.
Any truth to the rumour the Canadian Government is trying to talk Australia into buying our Hawk replacement early, so they can buy the used RAAF Hawks
The used Hornet buy had political blow-back on junior so I doubt used Hawks are on the table.Any truth to the rumour the Canadian Government is trying to talk Australia into buying our Hawk replacement early, so they can buy the used RAAF Hawks