Canada’s second Boeing C-17 Globemaster will arrive for the first time at its home base of CFB Trenton on Thursday this week, the air force says. Exact arrival time is not yet clear but it will be on the tarmac there eventually where it will become CC-177.
Whilst an A400M would be unlikely to arrive by 2012, if then 🙂
Yet earlier: “Mr. Thompson said the company is ready to guarantee Canada delivery of the first aircraft in December 2010…”
Mark
Ottawa
Mark — I realize you've got this obsession about Airbus Military — but, as you know, of course, the C-17 is Canada's solution to its strategic airlift needs and the A400M was Airbus' candidate to help with a different problem — the tactical airlift requirement.
Dear Mr Akin,
Not quite. Airbus was also pushing the A400M for strategic lift in 2006:
“OTTAWA, June 15 /CNW Telbec/ – The Canadian government has received a proposal to supply its armed forces with the A400M military airlift aircraft.
The offer includes commitments on performance, price, deliveries and economic benefits to Canada.
The proposal comes amid reports the government is considering a sole-source contract for the C-17 that would see most service and maintenance work done in the US. A separate fleet of tactical airlifters would be purchased later.
The A400M proposal would see Canada's tactical airlift and most of its strategic airlift needs met by a single plane – the new A400M – at a saving of up to $2 billion compared to the cost of purchasing, maintaining and operating two separately functioning fleets.
The A400M proposal offers a commitment to return a minimum 100% of the acquisition cost in the form of Industrial Regional Benefits to Canadian companies. In addition, a large proportion of maintenance and service work for the A400M would be done by Canadian firms.
Key points contained in the proposal include:
Superior capabilities for the military: The A400M is the new, superior 21st Century tactical airlifter that also provides significant strategic airlift capabilities over global distances and can carry every piece of
equipment used by the Canadian armed forces, as well as the DART and other large equipment required for rapid disaster relief intervention. Nine countries, including major NATO partners, have so far ordered a total of 192 A400Ms.
Major savings for taxpayers: 16 A400Ms can be provided for $2.4 billion – some $2 billion less than if two separate strategic and tactical airlift
fleets were purchased. Occasional requirements for very much larger strategic
airlift planes can be easily met by Canada's membership of SALIS – a guaranteed and prepaid leasing contract that is already in place, and which
Canada shares with some of its closest NATO allies at a cost of tens of millions of dollars, rather than several billion dollars in purchase and maintenance costs…”
Regards,
Mark Collins
Well — like I said: Obsession! We're already taking delivery of our second strategic airlifter and you're still on about why the A400 is a lousy choice as a strategic airlifter!
Or tactical!:)
Mark
Ottawa
Keep up the good work Mark.
The media was highly sympathetic to any and all critiques of the C 17 acquisition and gleefully re-published EADS/Airbus marketing pap, ignored the European illegal act of stealing the engine contract from a Canadian supplier and torqued stories to make the sole source acquisition look crooked.
Obsession ?? Well thank goodness we have citizens like you who will do what the fourth estate doesn't seem to want to do.
I guess good news isn't sensational enough to sell advertising space.
Thanks, Haletown. Eric Reguly of the Globe has noticed the A400M's problems (near end).
Continuing to obsess!
Mark
Ottawa