CATS contract reportedly delayed

By Chris Thatcher | December 15, 2016

Canada’s Contracted Airborne Training Services (CATS) project won’t have a winner before the end of 2016, according to the Ottawa Citizen.

The CATS program was the last of several major procurement projects expected to receive a decision before the end of the year. The government recently announced negotiations for an interim fleet of 18 Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets and awarded a $2.4 billion contract for a new fleet of 16 Airbus C295W fixed-wing search and rescue aircraft.

Citing unnamed sources, the Citizen reported that a contract award could be pushed back as far as October 2017 because “government procurement specialists don’t have the resources to review the information from the bids.”

“We are not in a position to provide an announcement date for the awarding of the CATS contract, as we are still in the evaluation phase,” Public Services and Procurement Canada said in a written response to the paper.

CATS, estimated to be worth up to $1.5 billion, will provide the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) with adversarial air, or red air, by simulating hostile threats for fighter pilots, naval crews and land forces. The project includes training for joint terminal attack controllers (JTAC), electro-optical and infrared-guided weapons system operators, as well as electronic warfare training for aircrews, land forces, aerospace weapons controllers, and navy frigates.

“It’s been good for the army and the navy, but it’s been even better for the air force because we preserve very costly CF-188 hours,” Col Paul Dittmann, the Royal Canadian Air Force’s director of air simulation and training, told Skies in March. An hour of CF-188 flying costs approximately $30,000.

Canada was among the first in NATO to employ contracted airborne services for army, navy and air force training, and, since the early 2000s, has been delivering red air through a series of standing offers with Montreal-based Discovery Air Defence (formerly Top Aces), which has provided a combination of fast fighter jets and business jets stationed at four bases across the country.

Under CATS, the program would become permanent for at least the next 10 years, with options for renewals that could extend the service to 2031. The new contract would include aircraft, aircrews, maintenance and facilities, as well as project management.

With a more formalized program, the Forces are requesting enhanced JTAC capabilities that include night vision imaging systems, electro-optical targeting and bomb delivery. In addition, the aircraft must carry a variety of pods–multi-band jammers, threat replicators, tracking equipment–that will be provided and maintained by the CAF.

The request for proposal did not specify the number of aircraft required, but the contractor will be expected to support up to eight concurrent multi-role combat support fighter taskings and up to two concurrent medium endurance aircraft taskings.

By the February 2016 deadline, bids had been received from current provider Discovery Air Defence as well as from CAE Canada. The latter is partnered with Draken International of Florida, which operates one of the largest combat aggressor air fleets.