Canada To Buy 10 Boeing F/A-18E Aircraft Worth US$5.23 billion

[Penguin]

What about Boeing? They were the first ones to leave.

“We regret that after reviewing the request we do not see an opportunity to compete on a truly level playing field with the...F/A-18 Super Hornet,”
https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/boeing-pulls-out-of-belgian-fighter-competition-436354/

 

[randomradio]

“We regret that after reviewing the request we do not see an opportunity to compete on a truly level playing field with the...F/A-18 Super Hornet,”
https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/boeing-pulls-out-of-belgian-fighter-competition-436354/

They pulled out citing the F-35 was given undue favours. This was the reason given by Dassault as well.

You see, you claimed "long term operational support". Both Dassault and Boeing are capable of providing exactly that. For example, the maintenance contract signed with India is for 50 years. Both aircraft offerings have proven capability of having received long term operational support, the F-35 has not.

What's more? Belgium also asked for assistance from support assets of the country's respective air forces. The US and France are naturally capable of providing this support.

https://www.airrecognition.com/inde...id-for-belgian-f-16s-replacement-program.html

Basically, the Belgians are better off going through a direct FMS contract instead of the tender farce. Gripen, Rafale and SH are out of the race.

 

[A.P. Richelieu]

They pulled out citing the F-35 was given undue favours. This was the reason given by Dassault as well.

You see, you claimed "long term operational support". Both Dassault and Boeing are capable of providing exactly that. For example, the maintenance contract signed with India is for 50 years. Both aircraft offerings have proven capability of having received long term operational support, the F-35 has not.

What's more? Belgium also asked for assistance from support assets of the country's respective air forces. The US and France are naturally capable of providing this support.

https://www.airrecognition.com/inde...id-for-belgian-f-16s-replacement-program.html

Basically, the Belgians are better off going through a direct FMS contract instead of the tender farce. Gripen, Rafale and SH are out of the race.

Long term operational supports involve making sure that there are tanker aircrafts flying in support of Belgian Air Force missions.
It is clearly just one of the requirements to help make sure that nothing but the F-35 can be selected.

 

[A.P. Richelieu]

Trudeau: ‘We Won’t Do Business’ With Boeing

Less than one week after the U.S. State Departmentapproved the sale of 18 Boeing Super Hornets to Canada, the Canadian prime minister said he will refuse to do business with the Chicago-based aerospace company.

“We won’t do business with a company that is busy trying to sue us and put our aerospace workers out of business,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on CTV Sept. 18, referring to Boeing’s ongoing trade dispute with Bombardier.

Boeing has filed anti-dumping and countervailing duty petitions because of the sale of 75 CS100s to Delta Air Lineslast year, arguing that Canadian subsidies enabled Bombardier to sell the aircraft below the cost of production.

In a statement, Boeing disputed the notion that it is “suing Canada,” saying Bombardier has sold its aircraft at “absurdly low” prices.

“Bombardier has sold airplanes in the U.S. for millions of dollars less than it has sold them in Canada, and millions of dollars less than it costs Bombardier to build them,” spokesman Daniel Curran said. “This is a classic case of dumping, made possible by a major injection of public funds. This violation of trade law is the only issue at stake at the U.S. Department of Commerce.”

Boeing already was on thin ice because of the trade dispute; Canada was reviewing the sale of its Super Hornets, which is worth up to $5.2 billion. And the Canadian defense minister is making inquiries about Australian F-18s. Canada has sought to purchase Super Hornets to keep its air force CF-18 fleet current while it considers its ultimate future fighter.

Canada is one of the F-35’s original partners, and the previous government had intended to purchase 65 of the Lockheed Martin fighters. Canada also is considering the Dassault Rafale, the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Saab JAS 39 Gripen.

But Trudeau has now ratcheted up the pressure with this latest statement. The news comes on the same day Trudeau met in Ottawa with UK Prime Minister Theresa May, who has joined with Trudeau in asking Boeing to drop its case.

http://aviationweek.com/combat-aircraft/trudeau-we-won-t-do-business-boeing

 

[Penguin]