Trouble coming for NATO Flying Training Centre, Moose Jaw?

The Danes will be pulling out.

Denmark has formally notified the federal government it will pull out of military flight training in Canada in three years, The Canadian Press has learned.

The move further clouds the future of the Bombardier-run NATO Flight Training in Canada (NFTC) program. It is the latest setback for the advanced flight-training school, which operates out of 15 Wing in Moose Jaw, Sask., and 4 Wing at Canadian Forces Base Cold Lake in Alberta.

An air force spokesman confirmed the decision by the Danes to end their contract in 2010, but denied it would spell the end of the $3.4-billion program...

"It has no impact on the NFTC program" other the fact fewer students will be enrolled, said Brian Watson, director of major procurement at the Defence Department. "We would have preferred them to stay."

He said the centre will continue to operate until the end of the 20-year contract with Bombardier because Canada will still need to train fresh pilots.

First conceived in 1994 when private-public partnerships were especially popular, the privately operated, publicly funded flying school has struggled to attract students. The centre has taught pilots to fly jets, multi-engined turbo-prop planes and helicopters since 1998.

Canada, Denmark, Hungary, Italy, Britain and the United Arab Emirates are among the countries that have sent students to the school, where they've been taught to fly BAE Systems' Hawk 155 jets and Raytheon's T-6A Harvards...

Competition from a new consortium aimed a F-35 pilots may be a factor:

A one-year contract with the UAE ends this year and Britain's arms procurement minister, Lord Peter Drayson, announced Nov. 30 that British authorities had appointed the Ascent Consortium - made up of the VT Group and Lockheed Martin - to train Royal Navy and Royal Air Force pilots.

Lockheed Martin is principle contractor in the design and construction of the next generation of attack jet - the Joint Strike Fighter, or F-35 Lightning II.

In its partnership with the VT Group, the U.S. giant is using state-of-the-art ground trainers that defence industry insiders say outstrip anything at the NFTC...