The bids went in Monday for the Canadian government’s $3.1 billion fixed wing search and rescue (FWSAR) program. Embraer, Alenia and Airbus all bid.
But the talk of the aerospace industry centers on theories about why Lockheed Martin didn’t submit a bid with its C-130J aircraft.
For the last couple of years Lockheed Martin had been promoting the C-130J for the FWSAR role. The aircraft was well suited for the Canadian role and well known to the RCAF since they are flying the same plane for a tactical transport role, company executives pointed out.
But the realization that the situation had changed and there was trouble on the horizon for the C-130J first came (for me anyways) at CANSEC 2015 in May. The usually talkative Lockheed Martin officials were tight-lipped at the trade show.
“Out of respect for the procurement process, Lockheed Martin does not comment on competitive tenders that are underway,” one of Lockheed’s executives said when asked how the bid for the FWSAR project was going.
Of course such a statement is laughable. Companies love to talk about their products to the news media. And CANSEC is about promoting industry products.
Just six months before Lockheed Martin officials had been highlighting how great their C-130J would be for the FWSAR program.
I was quickly ushered away from the Lockheed Martin CANSEC booth by a company public affairs official.
It was clear by the reaction of the Lockheed Martin PR person and the company executive that something was up.
Sources confirmed a few weeks later to Defence Watch that Lockheed Martin’s bid was FWSAR was near dead.
In the last few weeks, as the other aerospace companies were finalizing their FWSAR bids and promoting their aircraft with presentations to media, Lockheed was still sticking to the same PR line about not commenting on active DND equipment projects.
While Lockheed Martin is not talking, its various industry competitors are more than happy to explain the situation. The C-130J is just too expensive to operate for the FWSAR budget, they point out. In-service support costs for the plane would be too much, they claim. Aircraft such as the C-27J and C-295 could provide the RCAF with aircraft that were of the optimal size and cost, the competitors argue.
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