mandag 28. mars 2022
Canada velger F-35 - The Aviationist
Canada Selects
The F-35 And Enters Into Negotiations With Lockheed Martin For 88 Stealth Jets
March
28, 2022 F-35, Military Aviation
Members of the F-35A Lightning II Demonstration Team prepare to launch Capt. Andrew “Dojo” Olson, F-35 pilot, during the Bagotville International Air Show in Quebec, Canada, June 22, 2019. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Jensen Stidham)
Canada is closer to
replace its CF-188 Hornet with the F-35 stealth aircraft.
As part of the
Future Fighter Capability Project (FFCP) Canada aims to replace the Royal
Canadian Air Force’s fleet of legacy CF-188 Hornets (local
designation of the F/A-18) with a new aircraft. And the aircraft the Government
has chosen is the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning 5th generation aircraft.
“The Government of
Canada has reached another milestone in the competitive process to purchase 88
advanced fighter jets for the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), which will
ensure the requirements of the RCAF are met while also providing value for
Canadians, generating high-value jobs in Canada as well as further growth for
the Canadian aerospace and defence sector for decades to come,” says an official statement released
on Mar. 28, 2022.
“Following a
rigorous evaluation of proposals, the Government of Canada today announced it
will now enter into the finalization phase of the procurement process with the
top-ranked bidder, the United States (US) government and Lockheed Martin, for
the F-35 fighter jet. This procurement represents the most significant
investment in the RCAF in more than 30 years. It is essential for protecting
the safety and security of Canadians, it will enhance our Arctic sovereignty,
it will ensure we are equipped to better defend North America and it will help
make sure we continue to meet our NATO and NORAD obligations well into the
future.”
The Government of
Canada launched an “open and transparent competitive process” to acquire new
fighter jets in 2017. A formal request for proposals was released to eligible
suppliers in July 2019. It closed in July 2020. Dassault and Airbus decided to
withdraw their Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon proposals in 2018 and 2019,
respectively, saying that the requirements favored the US bids. Boeing,
Lockheed Martin and Saab, proposing the Super Hornet Block III,
the F-35A Lightning II and the Gripen E respectively, were asked to show how
their bids could meet not only the military requirements of the RCAF for
missions both at home and abroad, but also provide benefits for the national
industry.
In November 2021, it
was announced that the replacement proposal based on the F/A-18E/F Super
Hornet, one of the favorite bids considered that the RCAF already operates the
“legacy” version of the Hornet, was rejected as it did not meet the federal
government’s requirements. Between the two remaining contenders, Lockheed
Martin and Saab, Canada eventually chose the F-35.
“The multi-step
assessment process took into account a wide range of factors, including capabilities,
cost, as well as economic benefits and impacts. Recognizing that these fighter
jets must effectively serve the RCAF and Canadians over the coming decades,
Canada evaluated these aircraft against typical scenarios familiar to NATO and
NORAD allies, which were further tailored to meet the needs of the RCAF,
including Canada’s unique northern geography. We are confident that this
competitive process will deliver the best results for the Canadian Armed Forces
and for Canadians.”
As we explained in
a previous article on
the Canadian procurement of new fighter jets:
We
should not forget that Canada is a partner in the Joint Strike Fighter program,
with over CAD 713 million spent since 1997 to participate in the program that
led Canadian companies to secure F-35-related contracts for over CAD 2.6
billion. The government decided to buy 65 F-35s in 2010 without competition,
however in 2015 the plan was scrapped in favor of an open competition. Together
with this competition, it was also decided to acquire 18 Super Hornets as
temporary solution until the arrival of the new fighter aircraft. Following
the trade dispute between Boeing and Bombardier,
which even led to a so-called “Boeing clause” on firms that have launched trade
disputes with Canada and are seeking a federal contract, the Super Hornet interim
plan was cancelled.
The
18 interim jets, however, were still badly needed and, in the end, Canada
decided to acquire 18 flyable Hornets from the Royal Australian Air Force, of
which 12 single seater F/A-18A and 6 twin seater F/A-18B jets, and up to seven
non flyable aircraft for use as spare parts and training aids. The fighters
were being retired as the RAAF received its new F-35s and were delivered to the RCAF
between 2019 and 2021. The “new” aircraft, which are being upgraded to a
standard similar to the CF-188, will address the capability gap so that the
Canadian Armed Forces are able to simultaneously meet both the NORAD and NATO
fighter aircraft commitments.
In
addition to that, a further upgrade known as Hornet Extension Project (HEP) has
been started for the entire fleet of 94 F/A-18s (including the 18 Australian
aircraft) to meet the most recent international aviation regulations and ensure
interoperability with allies. The upgrade includes Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B),
Honeywell GPS/INS systems, new AN/ARC-210 radios, airborne Joint Tactical
Radios, upgraded Sniper targeting pod and enhanced mission computers and data
transfer units.
Following
this works, the 36 aircraft with the most remaining operational life will be
further upgraded to obtain enhanced combat capabilities for operations against
current threats. As part of the upgrade, these jets will receive the APG-79(V)4
Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, AIM-9X Block II Sidewinder
and AIM-120D AMRAAM air-to-air missiles, AGM-154 Joint StandOff Weapon (JSOW),
ADM-141C Improved Tactical Air-Launched Decoys and the Automatic Ground
Collision Avoidance System (Auto GCAS). The total cost of the two rounds of
upgrades is of about CAD 1.3 billion.
The HEP upgrade will keep the Canadian
Hornets relevant until 2032, when the replacement aircraft is expected to take
over.
Two CF-188 Hornet jets, 425 Tactical Fighter Squadron, fly in formation with four F-16 fighting falcon aircraft, 120th Fighter Squadron, from Buckley Air Force Base, Colorado, on September 20, 2020, over the skies of Labrador during a NORAD Arctic Air Defense Operation being hosted by 5 Wing Newfoundland, Labrador. (Image credit: Master Corporal Krista Blizzard)
Among the Quick
Facts highlighted by Canada’s Government in their official statement, there’s
also the fact that Allies and security partners, ranging from the US, the UK,
Italy and the Netherlands in NATO, to Australia, Japan and South Korea in the
Indo-Pacific, use or are in the process of procuring the F-35. Indeed, the
controversial Lightning jet has consistently won all the competitions it has
entered, including the ones in
According to the
Government of Canada, the procurement of the first aircraft should take place
in 2025. Canada is preparing two main operating bases for its future fighter
aircraft: 4 Wing Cold Lake and 3 Wing Bagotville,
Russlands tyveri av over 400 vestlig eide fly - Leasingselkskapene går på et tap - Curt Lewis
Analysis – Aircraft Lessors Lose Hope of Getting Back Russian Planes Worth $10B
As the clock runs down to Monday’s sanctions deadline for Russian airlines to hand back more than 400 leased planes worth almost $10 billion, foreign lessors are fast losing hope that they will get their aircraft back.
Most of the planes are still flying Russian domestic routes, IBA consultancy says, although Bermuda and Ireland – where most are registered – have suspended airworthiness certificates which usually means they should be grounded.
Russia’s Seizure of
Foreign Jets Triggers Wave of Insurance Claims From Leasing Firms
Will Companies Exiting Russia Be Able to Recoup Losses With Insurance?
Aviation was an early business casualty of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, as the West and Russia imposed tit-for-tat airspace bans. Now, lessors face big writedowns or a long insurance battle as the March 28 deadline looms for terminating plane leases under European Union sanctions.
“I’m afraid that we are going to witness the largest sort of theft of aircraft in the history of commercial civil aviation,” said Volodymyr Bilotkach, an associate professor of air transport management at Singapore Institute of Technology.
Dual registration is not allowed under international rules, but Russia has already moved more than half of the foreign-owned aircraft to its own registry after passing a law permitting this, Russia’s government said on Wednesday [March 23].
The government also said 78 planes leased to Russian carriers had been seized while abroad and would not fly back to Russia, Interfax news agency said on Tuesday [March 22].
Major aircraft lessor Avolon has terminated all its Russian airline leases and repossessed four of the 14 owned aircraft on lease with Russian airlines outside the country, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday.
It wasn’t clear if the four planes were part of the 78 reported by Moscow.
Although the planes are insured, the unprecedented nature and scale of the potential losses will likely mean years of litigation between lessors and insurers before any decisions on payouts are taken, analysts say.
And even if the planes are repossessed, the recoverable value would be in question because the aircraft must have accurate maintenance records to ensure they have been fitted with genuine, traceable components – another area targeted by Western sanctions on Russia.
Although the total value of the planes is huge, the impact on individual leasing firms may still be manageable even if writedowns are required as aircraft leased to Russian airlines account for less than 10% of most leasing firm portfolios.
“It’s not going to cripple these businesses,” said Brad Dailey, a director at Alton Aviation Consultancy who previously worked at Ireland-based leasing giant AerCap Holdings.
“What it does do in my view is it changes the future market potential of Russia,” he said.
Covering Losses
Some private airlines have indicated their willingness to hand back planes to the lessors, although it is unclear whether the Russian government will approve the transactions.
Russia’s UTair Airlines said on March 14 it would withdraw from service all nine of its leased Boeing 737 NGs, citing owner requirements, a move that could preserve longer-term relations after sanctions end.
Those planes have not flown since that announcement but remain in Russia, data from flight tracking website FlightRadar24 show.
In some cases, lessors have security deposits that could be forfeit and could help cover a portion of any losses – but still only a fraction of a plane’s value.
For example, a security deposit on narrowbody plane worth $20 million could be about $450,000, the equivalent of three months rent, Alton’s Dailey said.
Ratings agency KBRA said security deposits generally range from one to four months of rent, depending on the credit assessment of the airline leasing the plane.
Russian national carrier Aeroflot had been viewed as the best credit risk before the invasion, industry sources said, although that assessment no longer applies after Moscow’s move to register its planes in Russia.
A person at a Chinese lessor with exposure to Aeroflot said no security deposits had been taken from the airline and said insurance payouts appeared to be the only route to cover losses.
The lessor plans to begin insurance claims after the March 28 deadline has passed, said the person, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
A source at another Chinese lessor with exposure to Aeroflot said that, instead of taking a security deposit, it held U.S. dollar letters of credit from Russian banks – but the source said they had no effective value now because of Russian currency controls imposed in response to financial sanctions.
At lower-tier
airlines, lessors are more likely to have stronger security deposits in place,
Dailey said.
Motorbortfall 570NM fra land - B767-300 - Curt Lewis
Incident: United B763
over Atlantic on Mar 28th 2022, engine failure
A United Boeing
767-300, registration N675UA performing flight UA-134 from Newark,NJ (USA)
to Zurich (Switzerland) with 123 people on board, was enroute at FL370 over the
Atlantic Ocean about 570nm west of Shannon (Ireland) when the crew reported the
failure/damage of the right hand engine (PW4060), drifted down to FL250 and
later FL200 and decided to divert to Shannon. The crew advised they would taxi
off the runway and to the apron, no inspection on the runway or taxiway was
necessary. The aircraft landed safely on runway 06 about 95 minutes after
leaving FL370.
Fake news fra Airbus - I stedet for 100% SAF burde det stått 25% - Airbus
Ukraina - Omveier på grunn av stengt russisk luftrom - CNN
Follow CNN’s
continuing coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Flights are taking huge 'detours' around Russian air space. Here's what
that means for the climate crisis
By Rachel Ramirez, CNN
Updated 1024 GMT (1824 HKT) March 24, 2022
A Japan Airlines plane takes off from Haneda
Airport Terminal 2 in Tokyo, Japan, on September 24, 2021.
(CNN)Since Russia closed its airspace to airlines from dozens of countries at the end of February -- in response to
sanctions levied for its invasion of Ukraine -- about 400 flights per month
that had previously been routed over the country are being forced to take a
wider berth, according to Flightradar24.
In lieu of using Russian airspace, some flights from Europe to Asia are
flying south of the country or, in some cases, taking a painfully long reroute
over the Arctic. And Russia is huge; it's the largest country on the planet --
larger than the continent of Antarctica.
The new routes are leading to more time in the air for passengers and
crew, more miles flown and more fuel burned -- which means more planet-warming
emissions.
Japan Airlines Flight JL43 from Tokyo to London, for instance, uses a Boeing 777-300ER
aircraft that burns roughly 2,300 gallons of fuel per hour. The rerouted JL43
flight -- which now heads east over the North Pacific, Alaska, Canada and
Greenland -- added 2.4 hours of flight time and likely burned around 5,600
gallons more fuel, a 20% increase.
That means Flight JL43 could be emitting an additional 54,000
kilograms, or 60 tons, of planet-warming carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,
according to calculations by Paul Williams, an atmospheric scientist at the
University of Reading, for CNN. That's the same amount of carbon dioxide as the
average car driving 137,000 miles, or nearly six times around the planet.
Williams said the exact fuel burn rate depends on the weight of the
aircraft, the altitude and airspeed, and some of those variables are unknown.
These calculations also do not factor in the warming effect of other greenhouse
gas emissions or the flights' condensation trails.
"Naturally, a lot of people when thinking about aviation and climate, they focus on the CO2 emitted," Williams told CNN. "But, actually, it's much worse than that. CO2 is actually just the tip of the iceberg. The extra flight time is causing a lot more warming than the mileages I gave you because they only take into account the CO2, not the other non-CO2 effects."
Dan Rutherford, director of the International Council on Clean
Transportation's aviation and marine programs, told CNN that Williams'
calculations "look reasonable."
"If anything, he is underestimating the likely impact because, at
the margin, long-haul flights become even more fuel intensive with extra
distance because they 'burn fuel to carry fuel,' in industry parlance,"
Rutherford said.
In other words, it's a vicious, fuel-guzzling loop: It takes more fuel
to carry the weight of more fuel.
According to Flightradar24, the aircraft tracking service, there are a limited number of flights
-- mostly Finnair flights -- taking the polar route around Russia. Others are
taking a southern route.
Lufthansa Flight LH716 from
Frankfurt to Tokyo, for example, has added nearly an hour to its flight time.
The Airbus A340 aircraft typically burns around 2,000 gallons of fuel an hour,
which could mean the extra flight time burned another 1,428 gallons of fuel.
That's an additional 13,710 kilograms of planet-warming emissions -- the same amount released by an average car driving 34,000 miles, or nearly twice around the world.
Rutherford estimated that if Russian airspace remains closed for much
longer, the global aviation carbon inventory may increase by up to 1%.
That seems very low, but air travel is a significant contributor to the
climate crisis, accounting for more than 2% of the world's carbon dioxide
emissions as of 2018, according to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute. The institute notes that if the aviation
industry were its own country, it would rank No. 6 in carbon emissions.
"[However], I consider that a marginal impact that governments
shouldn't consider when setting policy regarding the Ukrainian invasion,"
Rutherford told CNN. "It's a small price to pay to defend global democracy
and the international rule of law, in my personal opinion."
Flying can make up a huge portion of a person's carbon footprint. For instance, a one-way intercontinental flight
between Hong Kong and San Francisco emits more carbon dioxide than the average
British person's activities -- or that of 10 people living in Ghana -- over the
course of a year, according to a 2020 analysis published in the journal Nature. "Fly less" is often
the first line of expert advice for people looking to reduce their climate impact.
But with the aviation industry struggling to decarbonize, Williams said he expects emissions from aviation
to only increase over time.
"Aviation is finding it really difficult to decarbonize than the rest of the economy," he said. "Because the plane needs so much energy to generate the thrust, it's really problematic to move away from fossil fuels. So aviation is a small part of the jigsaw currently, but in the coming decades, it will grow as a fraction of global emissions."
But right now, the extra emissions are unavoidable, Williams said.
There are no other options than taking the long way around Russia.
Airlines can invest in new, more efficient aircrafts and shift to
sustainable aviation fuels, Rutherford said, but those are long-term solutions.
Short-term strategies are limited.
"The extra fuel use and emissions, and also extra fuel cost due to
higher oil prices generally, are basically inescapable for airlines,"
Rutherford said. "In addition to paying more, they can reduce payload --
passengers or carriage -- at the cost of some revenue, or they can cancel the
flight."
In February, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that the
"current events" showed the world was too reliant on fossil fuels,
calling them "a dead end." A recent UN climate report shows that unless Earth's warming is dramatically slowed, billions of people and other species may no longer be able to adapt to irreversible changes brought by fossil fuel emissions.
Rutherford said he expects "renewed interest in developing
alternative fuels in shipping and aviation, to distance those industries from
Russian energy exports."
"This particular war is causing a wide rethink about getting off
of fossil fuels," he said.
MV-22B havariet og Statens Havarikommisjons stillingstagen - SH
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Regarding the accident involving a MV-22B Osprey
near Bodø, Norway on 18 March 2022
The Norwegian Safety
Investigation Authority (NSIA) has decided not to investigate the accident. The
accident will be investigated by a U.S forces investigation team. As of Friday
25 March the NSIA investigation, and thus the mandate in this investigation has
ended.
The aircraft hit the terrain in Gråtadalen, Reinfjellryggen during the
winter exercise Cold Response 2022. The Norwegian rescue services has informed
that they were scrambled at 1826 hrs local time and that the aircraft was later
located from air at 2117 hrs. Due to bad weather the rescue helicopter could
not land nor launch personnel at the site. Bad weather and danger of avalanche
in the area made it impossible for the NSIA, the police and U.S personnel to
start documenting the accident area until Sunday 20 March. The NSIA has later
been at the accident site together with the U.S. forces investigation team and
ensured transfer of information.
NSIA has been ensured that the U.S. forces safety investigation
will solely have an accident prevention purpose and that the principles of NATO
STANAG 3531 will be applied. This also implies that the Norwegian Armed Forces
will have a representative in the investigation. This will ensure both sharing
of safety relevant information and the continued support and assistance to
complete the investigation. The NSIA further expect that adequate information
is made available to the Norwegian public.
Based on this, the NSIA decides not to investigate the accident cf. Act
of 16 December 2016 No 92 relating to the investigation of accidents and
incidents in the Norwegian Armed Forces section 12 3rd paragraph.
Gråtådalen. Reinfjellryggen to the right. The impact area shown with an arrow. Photo: NSIA
Impact area. Photo: NSIA
Gråtådalen. Reinfjellryggen to the right. The impact area
shown with an arrow. Photo: NSIA
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