Planned Air Force purchases challenged
Airbus and others just won't give up.
Update: A fantasy about Mr Dosanjh.
At least three companies are challenging the federal government's attempts to quickly purchase $13-billion in military planes and helicopters.At least it's not Mr. Dosanjh doing the challenging this time.
The government will have to assess the new bids that came in yesterday and see whether they meet the requirements that were laid out last month. Down the road, the acquisitions of military hardware could also come under legal challenge.
Ottawa has stated that it wants to buy 16 Chinook helicopters for $2.7-billion, and four C-17 Globemaster cargo airplanes at $3.4-billion. When maintenance is included, the total deals are set to cost $8-billion [these prices are nonsensical; one C-17 does not cost $850 million--ex-factory price is around $200 million--unless an awful lot of life-cycle costs are included--has the reporter somehow just separated "maintenance?].
In addition, the Department of National Defence has launched a process to purchase 17 aircraft to replace Canada's fleet of Hercules transport planes, at a cost of about $4.9-billion. Industry observers said the government seems intent on purchasing a newer fleet of Hercules from Lockheed Martin for that project. At least three firms have come forward with alternative proposals for these contracts.
Airbus Military is stating that its A400M cargo aircraft, while not yet built, is a better and safer aircraft for the Canadian Forces' tactical needs than the latest generation of Hercules. Airbus said that the A400M will be available for delivery in 2010 [see end of link] and that it will be fully certified for military and civilian use. Richard Thompson, a senior vice-president at Airbus Military, said the current process is unfairly geared toward the purchase of the Hercules C-130J..
The SkyLink Group has submitted a project to provide the Canadian Forces with giant cargo planes to rival the Boeing C-17 Globemaster. SkyLink, a charter company based in Toronto, has a long history of providing aircraft to the United Nations and governments all over the world.
A Russian company might have also submitted a bid for that strategic-airlift contract, a source said.
Finally, AgustaWestland, the maker of the EH-101, is in the running for the contract to purchase medium- and heavy-lift helicopters, which the government wants to use to purchase Chinook aircraft...
Update: A fantasy about Mr Dosanjh.
posted by Mark, Ottawa at 11:20 a.m.
3 Comments:
Perhaps it's time to include a 'not have legally challenged' criteria on future purchases.
How can a company with a product that does not exist complain that it's unfair that someone wants to buy an existing product?
Old-syled accusations on the French is really not necessary and is a sign of intellectual mediocrity. A reasonable understanding would be that they want a second chance because the government decided to suddenly fast-track the decision of getting the equipment. 2010 is not reasonnable tough, we need those now. An interesting offer they could make is: 1- have our engines put in, 2- sustain our aviation by subsidizing aircrafts that could be of transition with our fleet.
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