Search and rescue plane purchase finally primed for take off

CBC News has learned the federal government is kick-starting the moribund program to purchase new search and rescue planes for the Canadian Forces.

The government Tuesday finally released a request for proposals to purchase aircraft to replace the aging fleet of Buffalo search planes.

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That request today comes 10 years after the Liberal government of Paul Martin first announced plans and funding for the program in 2005, and 13 years after the program was officially launched in 2002.

But under the Conservative government, that plan fell apart amid allegations the military had rigged the bid in favour of a specific aircraft.

Government and military officials have spent the past number of years working to develop a process to purchase new planes that both industry and contract workers inside government would certify as fair.

The government hosted a series of so-called industry days over the years to solicit the views of aircraft manufacturers and other defence industry players.That effort appears to have resulted now in an agreement over how the process should be run.

The request for proposal released Tuesday is an official request from the government to the defence industry for their best offer for aircraft, avionics and sensor systems, as well as long-term maintenance and support.

"The intent of the Department of National Defence (DND) is to procure a fleet of new sensor-equipped aircraft, including long-term In-service Support (ISS) for a period up to 20 years, in order to provide an effective response to SAR incidents anywhere in the Canadian area of responsibility," the government documents read.

The government set aside $1.3 billion in 2004 to buy new search planes to replace the C-115 Buffaloes used by the military since 1967. The first of 15 new aircraft was to be delivered by 2006.The total program cost, including a 20-year maintenance contract, was set at $3.1-billion.

In recent years, the military has struggled to keep that aging C-115 fleet in the air and has had difficulty finding enough parts to maintain the planes.

Several options

The Buffalo is not the only search and rescue plane in use by the military. The air force also employs the older H-model variant of the C-130 Hercules cargo planes outfitted for search efforts.The new proposal seeks to find an aircraft to replace both aircraft.

Over the years, there have been many aircraft manufacturers interested in participating in the project, including, at one point, Quebec-based Bombardier, which considered offering a modified version of its Dash 8. Another potential offer was from Viking Air on Vancouver Island, which proposed an upgraded version of the venerable Buffalo.

But industry insiders have always believed the key competitors were Alenia's C-27J Spartan, Airbus Military's C-295, and more recently, Lockheed Martin's upgraded C-130 J-model Hercules.

Each aircraft has its advantages. At one point, it was alleged the military had rigged its statement of requirements to favour the Spartan, which has a larger and taller cargo hold, more suitable for transport missions in addition to search and rescue.

The government eventually had those requirements assessed by the National Research Council, which concluded some of the military's specifications were overwrought. As a result, the government rethought its approach to the procurement of the new search plane.

The military traditionally has flown its high Arctic search missions using large and fast Hercules aircraft based at 8 Wing Trenton on the shores of Lake Ontario.

But new relaxed specifications would allow manufacturers to propose alternate basing arrangements, including in the North. That would make comparatively smaller and slower aircraft, such as the C-295, legitimate competitors.

The government expects aircraft manufacturers to have their offers submitted by the end of September.

It's not clear how long it will take the government to select a winner.

Pablo Molina, head of Airbus Defence and Space (Military Aircraft) Canada, which makes the C-295, said his company is excited to finally be taking part in an active procurement.

"We have been 10 years in this race with our C-295, so for today, this the start of real exciting times," he said. "The current feeling is the governmenthas put a lot of effort in making this a fair process.You can sense it in every conversation, in every meeting andin every email that you have with the project office."

SAR bungle helped spur reform: Analyst

Defence Analyst Dave Perry said the government spent years consulting with industry on how best to run the procurement and there's likely little reason for complaint from aircraft manufacturers.

He said the bungled nature of the search and rescue purchase stands as a compelling rationale for military procurement reform in Canada.

"On the scale of all the things we ask the military to do, [buying search and rescue planes] is relatively simple."

Perry chalks up part of the delay to a lack of staff inside DND to properly manage the project, particularly during the busy years of the Afghan war. The government also prioritized buying new ships and cargo planes, which likely further delayed the search plane effort.

But the real challenge,according to Perry, was in the military's handling of its core responsibility in aircraft procurement: Making the case for what it needs in a plane.

"This file more than any other symbolizes someofthe problems that have been expressed and the concerns expressed about the way the military has gone about generating and then communicating theirmilitary requirements," he said.

It was a problem that was repeated in the military's plan to buy 65 F-35 fighter jets. The controversies surrounding these two failures are said to be the root of the government's procurement reform plan. Perry said the solutions offered in the search plane process are now part of the government's fix for procurement writ large.

"You now have elements of what started with fixed-wing search and rescue, in terms of an independent review of the statement of requirements, now being institutionalized and applied to every military purchase."