Canadian Air Force procurement: Euro lobbying/A400M problems?

The most informative reporting is, as usual, non-Canadian. Don't our journalists ever do a Google search?

Two European aerospace groups have launched vigorous lobbying campaigns to thwart alleged plans by the Canadian government to shut them out of three of Ottawa’s biggest military equipment orders in recent years.

EADS submitted an unsolicited bid to the department of national defence last week for 16 Airbus A400M military transport planes after reports that the Canadians were about to order four C-17 Globemaster aircraft from Boeing of the US without calling for competitive tenders. The Globemaster order would be worth about C$2.5bn ($2.2bn).

Speculation is also rife that Ottawa will favour another US group, Lockheed-Martin, to replace its ageing fleet of smaller C-130 Hercules transport aircraft.

Meanwhile, AgustaWestland, the helicopter group, is worried that Ottawa is set to give Boeing’s Chinook heavy-lift helicopters a head-start over Agusta’s Cormorant Mark II [Canada flys the Cormorant for search and rescue as the CH-149 - MC].

“We’re slightly concerned that we’re being frozen out of a competitive process that is open, fair and where the playing field would be level”, said Richard Thompson, senior vice-president at EADS’s military division.

Agusta-Westland is currently claiming C$1bn in damages from the Canadian defence department relating to a big helicopter contract awarded to US-based Sikorsky in 2004. The European group contends that the tender requirements were written in such a way to exclude rival bidders...

Here's the kicker:

The European groups also maintain that Canada is depriving itself of valuable industrial benefits by opting out of a competitive bidding process.

I hope our government realizes that it's not about jobs and votes; it's about giving our military what they need to do the dangerous work the government orders them to do.

Update: The foreign press has its limits too. From Rescue Randy at Army.ca:

The reality is that the reporter has mixed up the A400M proposal for the airlift competition with the helicopter competition. EADS represents Eurocopter, not Agusta-Westland - that company is a direct competitor to EADS. If Richard Thompson was promoting a helicopter for the Chinook competition, it would have been either the Eurocopter Cougar EC 725 or the NH-90. Once again, you can't believe anything you read, very little of what you hear, and only half of what you see.....

Airbus, for its part, is denying that the troubles of the A380 will have any effect of the schedule for the A400M.

Funding for the planned Airbus...A400M military transport plane is completely secure and will not be affected by problems surrounding the company's flagship A380 airliner, a top official said on Thursday [June 15].

Airbus, which says nine countries have placed orders for a total of 192 A400Ms, is trying to sell the plane to Canada. The aircraft is due to receive its full certification in 2009.

Richard Thompson, a senior vice-president at the military wing of Airbus, dismissed the idea that the A400M program could be jeopardized by delivery delays with the A380 superjumbo airliner, which are set to cost Airbus parent EADS billions of euros...

Thompson said there were far fewer variants of the A400M than the A380, which meant the transport craft would not be affected by engineering delays.

"The industrial ramp-up that is planned for the A400M is far more conservative than for the A380 program and therefore we do not foresee any similar type of problems for the A400M program," he said...

I'm not so sure there will be no engineering delays. This is from "Weight Watchers" in the June 5 issue [text only for subscribers] of Aviation Week and Space Technology (to which all Canadian journalists covering the military should subscribe, but I doubt that even one does).

Airbus is striving to cut weight on its A400M military transport while increasing the aircraft's maximum takeoff figure by almost six tons to accommodate fuel.

The aim is to drive down structural weight, in what industry executives describe as an "aggressive" effort. "We have a robust weight-reduction program, and it is on target," one Airbus Military executive says. Range and payload are contractually guaranteed, but this is not the case for aircraft weight, he notes...

First flight is also slipping [emphasis added - MC]. Initially anticipated for January 2008, this is now foreseen as taking place slightly later in the first quarter. Overall, the development and production schedule remains tight, with little slack for any further delay if initial deliveries are not to be affected. Delivery of the first aircraft is due to France in 2009, 77 months after the May 31, 2003, contract award.

Maximum takeoff weight for the A400M has risen to 136.5 tons from 130, according to the Airbus executive. This is driven partly by redesign work to meet fuel payload requirements...

The A400M is now projected as being able to carry a 30-ton payload 2,400 naut. mi., down 150 naut. mi. from previous range estimates, says the Airbus executive. For a 20-ton payload this figure is now 3,450 naut. mi., a 100-naut.-mi. reduction. Its ferry range is also reduced by 150 naut. mi. to 4,750 naut. mi...[and Canada needs all the trans-oceanic range we can get - MC].

One also wonders how the all-new engine's development program is proceeding.