Military / Super Hornet Update Feeling the An interim Super Hornet purchase is in doubt as Canada considers used Australian jets to fill the so-called capability gap. By Chris Thatcher n the ongoing saga that is the replacement of Canada’s 30-year- old fighter jets, the latest plot twist has veered Down Under. On Sept. 29, after a month of informal discussions, the Canadian government submitted a formal “expression of inter- est” to Australia for the potential purchase of an undisclosed number of legacy F/A- 18A/B Hornet fighter aircraft and associ- ated parts. A response detailing the “avail- ability and cost” of the aircraft is expected from Canberra by the end of the year. Canada’s sudden interest in used Australian Hornets, to fill what the gov- ernment has called a capability gap in the fighter fleet to simultaneously meet both NORAD and NATO requirements, was prompted by a commercial dispute between I 42 SKIES Magazine | December 2017/January 2018 U.S. giant Boeing and Montreal-based Bombardier over the C Series aircraft. It’s a spat that has flared up against a backdrop of contentious North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) renegotiations. In November 2016, Canada announced a plan to acquire 18 new Boeing-built F/A- 18E/F Super Hornets, an interim measure to close the capability gap before the govern- ment launches an open competition in 2019 to replace the entire CF-188 fleet of 76 modi- fied A/B Hornet variants. That was followed in March 2017 by a letter to the United States government outlining our aircraft require- ments for this potential foreign military sale. Though the U.S. State Department has approved the possible foreign military sale, issuing a statement on Sept. 12 outlining a comprehensive aircraft and weapons package, the deal appears to be grounded—at least for now. Earlier this year, following the 2016 sale of 75 CSeries CS100 aircraft to Delta Air Lines, Boeing accused Bombardier of receiving unfair subsidies from Canadian federal and provincial governments, allowing it to dump the struggling small passenger jet in the U.S. at below-market prices. In separate rulings on Sept. 26 and Oct. 6, the U.S. Department of Commerce agreed and slapped countervailing tariffs and anti-dumping duties of nearly 300 per cent on the Bombardier plane. As the trade dispute escalated, Canadian ministers repeatedly warned the government would not do business with a company potentially harming vital domestic aerospace jobs.