Canada to Spend $5.0Bil on AEW Aircraft

[GR66]

I am not sure what would be worse: Paying Bombardier to plumb the Global 650 for AAR or paying Airbus to make a bespoke A220 AEW aircraft. (Hint: both will be spendy for Canada).

I do like the idea of buying more A330 MRTT. Too many tankers? Said no one, ever.

While it would be nice if Airbus had an AEW aircraft (and an MPA) to give us commonality across our heavy fleets, we've got the MRTT's and we've got the P-8's. To me it would make sense to go with the E-7 for the AEW for commonality of supply chains with the P-8's for many of the base mechanical components as well as pilot training.

With several other key purchases coming from the US however (P-8's, MQ-9b's, F-35's) I imagine there will be huge political pressure to go with Bombardier for the AEW aircraft. I'm all for diversifying our defence purchases (and onshoring where possible) but only when it makes sense.

Personally I'd rather get the E-7's (and F-35's) and have Bombardier instead partner with Saab and Canadian companies like Dominion Dynamics to develop a domestic UCAV family to work with our F-35's and P-8's