Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier recently said that "Our [CC-130 E/H] Hercules fleet right now is rapidly going downhill. We know that three years and a little bit more than that, the fleet starts to become almost completely inoperational and we will have to stop supporting operations - or else, not be able to start them." The CC-130 aircraft are used in a wide variety of roles, from tactical transport to aerial refueling and even search and rescue. The Canadian Forces do not own any other aircraft in a similar class.
With an election imminent, the minority-government Liberal Party of Canada has now announced that it will move forward with the competitive procurement of a new tactical airlift fleet for the Canadian Forces. The program is valued at between C$ 4-5 billion (USD $3.5-$4.3 billion), and will see the purchase of at least 16 new aircraft including a 20-year in-service support contract.
Plotting the potential contenders... The multi-national EADS Airbus A400M is due to enter service in late 2008 at the very earliest, and multiple deliveries would have to take place by early 2009 at the very latest in order to qualify for the Canadian contract.
Barring an extremely creative proposal, which is possible under the performance-based framework, Boeing's C-17 Globemaster III (USD $180-200 million per aircraft) is unlikely to fit within the program's budget parameters.
Lockheed, of course, can offer the C-130J Hercules or even the stretched C-130J-30. Indeed, that option has been dangled in front of the Canadian Forces before. In another potential deal, Britain had offered to lease Canada its nearly-new C-130Js, which would have left the RAF with stretched C-130J-30s and freed up funds for more C-17s. There is another potential contender... the Russian Ilyushin IL-76MD/TD Candid, which also comes in a stretched IL-76MF version
The C-130 replacement program may even be a harbinger of additional efforts to shore up the severely weakened Canadian armed forces. One is always wary of politicians making promises on the eve of elections, yet documents like the 2003 National Defence Strategic Capability Investment Plan, the 2005 defence budget increases, and recent Canadian defence policy statement suggest that this trend just might be real. Watching the progress and execution of the CC-130 replacement program will offer Canadians - and the broader world - a useful indicator of just how real. |
