Magellan wins $48-M contract

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This article was published 15/03/2019 (2577 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Magellan Aerospace has won a $48-million contract to produce specialized airborne flares that are used to illuminate the sky during nighttime search and rescue operations by the Royal Canadian Air Force.

The five-year contract to produce 10,000 high-tech flares is work that had been done by the U.S. defence contractor Northrup Grumman.

Carla Qualtrough, federal minister of public services and procurement and accessibility, said the contract is part of the Liberal government’s “ambitious plan to spend more on equipment and infrastructure purchases.

“The armed forces is responsible for providing aeronautical search and rescue (SAR) operations and our government has made significant investments to bolster our national SAR capabilities,” Qualtrough said at a news conference at Magellan’s Winnipeg plant.

The production of the flares will take place at Magellan’s propellant plant in Rockwood, near Stony Mountain. Officials said the work will be responsible for maintaining and/or creating 20 jobs. This will be a new product package for Magellan and will include technology upgrades to the product that’s currently on the market.

The flares come with their own parachute — allowing them to stay aloft longer — and timer and release mechanisms.

According to details from Northrup Grumman — Magellan will be producing the flares in a licensed manufacturing agreement — when illuminated at 1,520 metres, they will light up an area about two kilometres in diameter.

Maj. Brian Noel, air crew leader of 435 Squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force’s Winnipeg-based 17 Wing, said it is not expected that this new iteration of the design of the product will cause its deployment to change.

“The expectation on our end is that we will maintain our current capabilities,” he said. “The capsule itself is the same. The procedure that we use will be exactly the same. We won’t have or readjust how we do our operations or need to re-train anyone.”

Including the Canadian Coast Guard, the Canadian Armed Forces responds to more than 9,000 search and rescue calls annually, and about 1,000 of those calls require the launching of planes.

Having the proper supply of the right kind of flares is obviously important for SAR undertakings, but what is likely even more important is having the right aircraft for the mission.

In December 2016, the federal government committed $2.4 billion for the purchase of 16 C295W aircraft, manufactured by Airbus Defence and Space for SAR operations. (Newfoundland-based PAL Aerospace — owned by Winnipeg-based Exchange Income Corp. — partnered with Airbus and will provide maintenance and support services.)

“The first (C295W) plane came off the line last week and we are on pace to have the first new SAR plane in the skies next year,” Qualtrough said.

She also said the federal government is likely to be ready to release the final request for proposals on a new fleet of 88 fighter jets this May with a final decision in 2020.

“That means hopefully by the mid-2020s we will have aircraft delivered for the Canadian air force,” she said.

Magellan has been making composite parts for the controversial F-35 fighter jets that Canada had originally agreed to buy but has been in the midst of rethinking that decision over the past several years.

Magellan’s contract with BAE Systems to supply parts for the F-35 was officially continued two years ago, but Dan Pashniak, the general manager of Magellan in Winnipeg, declined to comment on the status of the contract today.

“I can’t provide too much detail other than to say things are right on track and we continue to work on the program,” he said.

For about a decade now, Magellan has been making the horizontal tail assemblies for the conventional takeoff and landing variant of the F-35. Magellan officials have said in the past that its projected total revenues from the F-35 program could reach $2 billion.

 

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca