Bombardier planes would have ‘competitive’ price tag with Boeing bid

The patrol planes Bombardier Inc. hopes could replace aging Canadian military aircraft will have a price “competitive” with that of jets from rival Boeing Inc., the Montreal-based company says.

The business jet maker joined forces earlier this year with U.S.-based General Dynamics on a surveillance aircraft with submarine-hunting technology. Both partners are calling on the federal government to launch an open procurement process to supplant the Royal Canadian Air Force’s 14 CP-140 Aurora maritime patrol planes, built by Lockheed Martin and set to retire in 2030 after a half-century of service.

The price of the 16 P-8A Poseidons and associated gear that Boeing aims to sell to Ottawa amounts to US$5.9 billion, according to a June 27 post from the U.S. Defence Security Cooperation Agency.

That total is one Bombardier can compete with, said Bombardier vice-president of public affairs Pierre Pyun. “We are absolutely convinced of that,” he said in French, though the company declined to name a price.

“For us to be able to put forward a price, there would have to be a request for proposals, then there would have to be specific requirements,” he told reporters during a presentation last week at the Bombardier plant in Montreal.

Public Services and Procurement Canada describes Boeing’s P-8s as “the only currently available aircraft that meets all of the CMMA (Canadian Multi-Mission Aircraft) operational requirements” — particularly around intelligence gathering, surveillance and anti-submarine warfare.

Bombardier’s plane, a modified version of the Global 6500 business jet equipped with tech and sensors from General Dynamics, so far exists on paper only, though the manufacturer says the aircraft will be ready by the early 2030s, in line with the government’s needs.

Anne-Marie Thibaudeau, director of programs at Bombardier Defense, said it’s “a very a normal thing” for companies to receive a contract for a product that has yet to be furnished.

“Governments or military services tend to require unique characteristics systems or radars on their aircraft, so they are usually full-on development programs,” she said.

“Boeing claims to have an aircraft that is available earlier, but it is also an aircraft that is at the end of its life and whose production line, according to Boeing, will be finished in (2025) if there are no other orders,” she added in French.

Bombardier has sat down with Defence Minister Anita Anand and Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne to discuss the surveillance planes, Pyun said.

The federal government has said it is still weighing its options for the multibillion-dollar contract.

Boeing has also tried to tout its Canadian bona fides.

The aircraft giant’s P8-A would sustain more than 2,900 jobs and generate $358 million in economic output in Canada annually, according to a Boeing-commissioned study by management consultants Doyletech Corp.

Bombardier and Boeing have clashed before. In 2020, the former sold its remaining stake in the A220 jetliner program, marking the end of its failed bid to take on the commercial aircraft duopoly of Airbus and Boeing.

In 2018, a U.S. trade panel ruled that Boeing suffered no harm due to competition from Bombardier, despite the U.S. plane maker’s claim that its northern rival sold C Series jets to Delta Air Lines at “absurdly” low prices while enjoying subsidies from the federal and Quebec governments.

The spat was spiralling upward before the decision, with Ottawa threatening to ditch plans to purchase 18 fighter jets from Boeing.