Pomerleau To Build New Facility For C-130 Training

November 5, 2009 by Matthew Potter · Comment
Filed under: Business Line, Canada, Companies, Contract Awards, Countries, Events, Lockheed Martin, Military Aviation, logistics, production program, training 

canada new c130j facility contractThe Canadian government has invested in several C-130J transports from Lockheed Martin. These are to improve their tactical and operational mobility. The aircraft are to be built in the United States but the contract has significant offset requirements so that Lockheed will have to spend money in Canada. As part of their plans to stimulate the economy due to the global recession Canada also planned to invest in defense infrastructure and this kind of project is the kind of thing that they proposed doing.

The Ontario based company Pomerleau, Inc received a contract worth about $40 million Canadian to build the facilities to support C-130J aircrew and maintenance training at the Trenton. The hanger based facility will be completed in 2012.

The U.S. military has been able to utilize some of the stimulus bill money from Congress to build or rehabilitate facilities. These seem to be the kind of project that will generate jobs and investment in the local economy. At the same time like Canada they are getting an enhanced capability.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/httpblogsinacomcnhomeofbeijingpeople/ / CC BY-ND 2.0

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Canadian Government Fights Back on Foriegn Contracts

March 9, 2009 by Matthew Potter · Comment
Filed under: Business Line, Canada, Companies, Contract Awards, Countries, Events, General Dynamics, IT, Thales 

The Canadian government of Mr. Harper has received criticism from the domestic defense industry and legislators that it has not been awarding enough contracts to Canadian companies. Part of the issue is that the last two major contracts for C-17 and C-130 aircraft had to go to American companies who are the producers of those aircraft. A more recent award for trucks though went to an American company Navistar when the product was available in Canada. The Vancouver Sun is reporting that the administration is trying to mollify its critics by awarding tow major contracts to Canadian companies. The two new contracts are for upgrades to command and control systems and will be awarded to Canadian subsidiaries of Thales and General Dynamics. Even so the work will be done in Canada and employ Canadians. One of the problems that affects defense contracting, especially for smaller countries, is that it may be hard to do the work domestically. India for example has invested billions into its industry but still has to turn to foreign suppliers for large, complicated programs.

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Canada and Sikorsky Have Issues with New Helicopters

January 7, 2009 by Matthew Potter · Comment
Filed under: Business Line, Canada, Contract Additions, Contract Awards, Military Aviation, Restructuring, Sikorsky, production program 

In 2004 the Canadian government ordered 40 new helicopters from Sikorsky to replace aging Sea King search and rescue aircraft. The original contract was for about $5 billion Canadian and set an initial delivery date of 2008. Now The Globe and Mail reports that due to requirement changes requested by the government $117 million had to be paid to Sikorsky. The contract has also slipped deliveries to 2012. There are also indications that due to further changes planned by the government more money will have to be paid. At the same time Canada has refused to collect a penalty clause in the contract to punish the company for delayed deliveries.

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Canada expands helicopter options for Afghanistan

August 7, 2008 by Matthew Potter · Comment
Filed under: Boeing, Canada, Contract Awards, Military Aviation, production program 

The Canadian government announced today that they are taking steps to improve the aviation assets for their troops in Afghanistan. See a story here. Up to now the Canadian ground forces relied on either Allied lift or use ground transportation. Now they are leasing Russian Mi-17 and buying CH-47D and F aircraft. The CH-47D will be used immediately, but the CH-47F will be new construction and available in 2013. The country is also leasing and buying UAV assets to support intelligence and surveillance operations.

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SAC sliding Canadian contract

April 30, 2008 by Matthew Potter · Comment
Filed under: Canada, Contract Awards, Military Aviation, Sikorsky, UTC, production program 

The story out of Canada is that the contract to buy 28 H-92 aircraft from SAC is sliding to the right. There are also rumors of cost increases. The Canadian government is threatening to cancel the contract if delays and cost increases are true. Normally for a contract like this to buy an established system starts experiencing slips or cost growth there are usually requirement changes or the contractor didn’t really provide what the customer desired. There is no word yet on what has happened. It may be that Sikorsky was just a little aggressive in their schedule.

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Fear of US export control laws lead Canada to deny sale of company

April 10, 2008 by Matthew Potter · Comment
Filed under: Acquisitions, Alliant Techsystems, Canada 

According to this article the Canadian government denied the sale of MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.’s satellite business to Alliant Techsystems Inc. See a previous post about the planned sale here. Canada cited the fact that if the company became American the laws protecting US technology exports would deny Canada access to the company’s satellite that focuses on the Canadian Arctic. Due to several scandals in the Nineties the US ramped up the laws governing technology transfer and export and make it very difficult to do this. Read more

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