Israeli systems on the future Canadian SAR aircraft?

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Canadian government procurement specialists are scrambling to release a bid package to industry for a multibillion-dollar military search-and-rescue (SAR) aircraft after a scathing report from the auditor general warned the nation’s search capability is at a breaking point.

The CAN $3.3 billion (US $3.2 billion) project to buy a new fleet of fixed-wing search-and-rescue (FWSAR) aircraft has been stalled for more than a decade. Work started in 2002, but procurement has been plagued by delays and controversy.

But industry sources said they expect the April 30 release of an embarrassing 39-page report, “Federal Search and Rescue Activities,” will force the Conservative Party government to try to gain lost ground on the procurement. The report, by Auditor General Michael Ferguson, found that the Royal Canadian Air Force does not have enough search-and-rescue (SAR) aircraft to do the job, and that the ones it does have are so old they are less capable of responding to SAR incidents.

Training and air crew availability also have problems, and an information management system used by the Department of National Defense to manage SAR cases is inadequate and nearing its breaking point, the report determined.

The new FWSAR aircraft would replace six DHC-5 Buffalo and 13 CC-130 Hercules.

A number of Israeli companies including Israel aerospace industries (IAI) and Elbit systems are manufacturing systems mainly sensors that can enhance the capabilities of advanced SAR platforms.

i-HLS ISRAEL Homeland Security