Military / FWSAR Procurement Watch the video here! C295W for Canada Airbus will supply Canada’s next fixed- wing search and rescue platform By Chris Thatcher orgive Fernando Alonso for looking a little shell-shocked on Dec. 8, 2016. Just 48 hours ear- lier, the head of military aircraft for Airbus Defence and Space had been informed at his office in Spain that the com- pany’s C295W had won Canada’s fixed-wing search and rescue (FWSAR) competition. Standing in the hangar of 424 Transport and Rescue Squadron at 8 Wing Trenton, Ont., on that cool winter morning amidst government ministers, senior officials, search and rescue technicians and other military personnel, reality began to set in. “Until this morning, I was saying it’s not really true,” said Alonso. “Now I am start- ing to believe it is true.” Though an early December announce- ment about the FWSAR competition had been expected for several months, the winner remained a closely guarded secret up until two days before the formal press conference. Air force public affairs offi- cers and executives with Airbus admitted it was a scramble to coordinate an event. “I only found out yesterday that Airbus won this competition,” acknowledged LGen Mike Hood, commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), while standing in the hangar at Trenton. “People don’t believe how good [the government] was at keeping it quiet,” said F 18 SKIES Magazine | January/February 2017 Simon Jacques, head of Airbus Defence and Space in Canada. The announcement of a dedicated search and rescue aircraft to replace the RCAF’s fleet of CC-115 Buffalos and the CC-130H Hercules assigned to SAR duty concluded a procurement competition that has sput- tered hot and cold over the past 14 years, since it was first declared a government priority in 2003. The $2.4 billion contract will be rolled out in two phases. The first includes deliv- ery of 16 aircraft, beginning in 2019 and concluding by 2022, as well as construc- tion of a new training centre in Comox, B.C. The second will cover five years of maintenance and support. The agreement includes options to pro- vide maintenance and support services for an additional 15 years, bringing the total value to $4.7 billion. The advanced capabilities of the C295W, in particular its integrated radar and sensor suite and communications and data man- agement systems, represent a new paradigm for search and rescue, according to Hood. RCAF FWSAR crews respond to over 350 missions each year across an 18 mil- lion square-kilometre area of responsibility (AOR) that extends from the Pacific Ocean to the North Pole and well out into the eastern Atlantic. The increased endurance