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Military / CATS Contract Red SUCCESS After a prolonged decision- making period, Discovery Air Defence has landed the 10-year contract to provide the Canadian Armed Forces with adversarial air services. By Chris Thatcher 14 SKIES Magazine | December 2017/January 2018 s the incumbent on the Contracted Airborne Training Services (CATS) program, Discovery Air Defence (DA Defence) had every reason to be confident. Still, there were visible signs of relief in its Montreal office on Oct. 30 when the federal government delivered a 10-year, $480-million contract with options that could extend the service to 2031 and the value to as much as $1.4 billion. “It was a really proud, happy moment,” said president Paul Bouchard. “There was relief in the sense that we originated the [CATS] program . . . and it’s what we’ve built the whole business around. It is the largest and longest program of its kind in the world, and it creates a lot of job security and [financial] certainty . . . [and] allows us to advance the business plan of securing the company’s future in Canada and [to] continue to grow the company internationally.” Corporate anxiety wasn’t helped by repeated delays in the evaluation process. The request for proposals (RFP) closed in February 2016 and a winner was expected by the end of the year. Media reports, however, suggested the government lacked enough qualified staff to assess the bids, which pushed back the award until late October 2017. A