Today, Airbus Defence and Space stated that they have submitted their bid to the Canadian government officially putting the C295W aircraft into the competition as Canada’s next Fixed Wing Search and Rescue (FWSAR) platform. The bid, according to Antonio Rodriguez-Barberan, Senior Vice-President Commercial, Special Projects for Airbus Defence and Space, weighed in at 1.5 tons of paper. Pablo Molina, Head of Airbus Defence and Space Military Aircraft in Canada, touted the C295W as a proven platform that is already in production and flying in 20 countries providing a reliable, low risk SAR platform with the lowest total cost of ownership. He also noted that part of the bid included In Service Support (ISS) to which Mr. Rodriguez-Berbaren added more specifics.
In short, Airbus Defence and Space, and Provincial Aerospace, a Canadian company that specializes in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance solutions, are combining their assets to create a new joint venture, AirPro Search and Rescue Services, which will be responsible for all of the ISS for the C295W should it win the contract. AirPro is “… a service support integrator, a Canadian company, and is run by Canadians, and Provincial Aerospace will be the vehicle that we use to ensure that all the necessary technical capabilities are in Canada to maintain the planes.” according to Mr. Rodriguez-Berbaren. Along with this, all C295Ws already produced (160+) contain twenty percent Canadian content and will continue to be so.
Keith Stoodley, Chief Development Officer, Provincial Aerospace (PA) noted that PA had worked with Airbus for over 10 years and has provided support to special missions aircraft for more than 30 years around the world from the Middle East to the Caribbean. One hundred percent of all ISS work performed on the C295W will be performed in Canada, although the exact number of jobs created and where they will be created could not be stated as that is part of the competitive bid.
To see the images from the press briefing, CLICK HERE
