Bombardier has decided not to sell its military aviation training division, after winning a C$270 million ($203 million) Canadian Forces contract to supply the Boeing CF-18 advanced distributed combat training system. The Canadian company is teamed with US simulator supplier L-3 Link for the CF-18 programme.
Describing the CF-18 award as "a perverse verdict", losing bidder CAE says the decision will undermine Canadian simulation technology. The blow follows the company's loss, late last year, of the US Army's Flight School XXI competition. CAE's formal protest of that decision was rejected, and the company will not be drawn on whether it will lodge an appeal against the CF-18 decision with the Canadian International Trade Tribunal.
Bombardier says it halted the sale of its military training division, which runs the NATO Flying Training in Canada (NFTC) programme, "because the offers received did not reflect the true value of the business". NFTC partners BAE Systems and CAE declined to bid because they considered the asking price too high. L-3 was viewed as the leading candidate to buy the division, as it had already purchased Bombardier's military aircraft maintenance business.
Bombardier put the military aviation services and training divisions on sale as part of its strategy to focus on business and regional aircraft and rail transport. Now the training division will remain a unit of Bombardier Aerospace. Countering criticism of L-3's involvement in the CF-18 programme, the company says two-thirds of the contract value is Canadian content.
Source: Flight International
