By Ken Pole | December 18, 2012 Estimated reading time 2 minutes, 59 seconds.
It appears Canada’s fighter jet procurement might not be the only aircraft purchase that is being “reset.” The Royal Canadian Air Force’s long-delayed purchase of new fixed-wing search and rescue (FWSAR) platforms is being stretched out yet again, with a request for more industry input in preparation for a new draft Request for Proposals (RFP).
More than a decade after the government announced plans to replace the RCAF’s aging fleet of 1960s de Havilland Canada CC-115 Buffaloes and Lockheed Martin CC-130E/H Hercules aircraft that are used specifically for SAR, Public Works & Government Services Canada (PWGSC) has issued a new Letter of Intent to potential bidders.
Following on the heels of the latest “industry engagement” discussions with the FWSAR Secretariat, the new “complete” RFP, which is to be issued by PWGSC “in early 2013,” marks the seventh time the original has been amended. In its notice, PWGSC said it would “continue sharing elements” of its original draft, so that industry could review and comment further before the new one is issued.
The FWSAR project dates to 2002, when the Department of National Defence pitched the idea to the Liberal government of the day. An initial “project identification phase” was approved that November, and DND began working on a Statement of Operational Requirements (SOR) the following year.
However, the SOR was immediately criticized by industry as being tailored to one specific aircraft, the Alenia C-27J Spartan, forcing the government to rethink its approach and setting the stage for a National Research Council study. The study urged a fresh start, including the consideration of a mixed-platform fleet.
Meanwhile, a former senior RCAF officer now in the private sector has suggested privately to Canadian Skies that the problem within the federal government’s procurement bureaucracy is a fundamental lack of the business acumen needed to manage multi-billion-dollar projects.
Citing the ongoing FWSAR issues and the government’s recent decision to “reset” its fighter jet replacement program, he said during an unattributable conversation that unlike their counterparts in the United States, Sweden and several European countries, Canadian military personnel do not spend enough time either liaising with – or embedded in – the private sector, where they could acquire the necessary expertise.
