Canadian government has announced that it will launch an open and transparent competition to replace the legacy fleet of Boeing CF-18 fi...
Canadian government has announced that it will launch an open and transparent competition to replace the legacy fleet of Boeing CF-18 fighter aircraft.
Previous Canadian government had announced intention to procure 65 Lockheed Martin F-35A stealth fighters to replace CF-18 fleet.
To maintain its combat edge, the country will immediately explore the acquisition of 18 new Super Hornet aircraft to supplement the CF-18s until the permanent replacement arrives.
The Government will enter into discussions with the U.S. Government and Boeing regarding use of these jets for an interim period of time.
Canada’s current fleet is now more than 30 years old and is down from 138 aircraft to 77.
As a result, the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) currently cannot meet obligation with NORAD and NATO to field a minimum no of mission ready fighter jets.
Canada has a bi-national obligation under the North American Aerospace Defense (NORAD) treaty with the United States to help defend North American airspace.
Since 2001, NORAD aircraft have conducted over 1,800 intercepts of non-military aircraft of concern because they were unresponsive or could not be identified.
Canada's first operational deployment of the CF-18 took place during the Gulf War in the early 1990s, when Canada sent 24 CF-18s to Qatar to participate in the American-led Desert Shield and Desert Storm campaigns.
And from 2014 until February 2016, Canada’s fighter fleet deployed to Kuwait in support of the allied coalition to fight the Daesh in Iraq, and also later in Syria as well.
The CF-18 is a Canadian customized version of the American F/A-18 twin engined fighter inducted from 1982 to 1988.
Powered by two General Electric F404 low bypass turbofan engines the CF-18 has a range of 3700 km and fly at a maximum speed of 1.8 Mach.
