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BG Archive
— Canadian Forces Airlifter Contest — Skylink Offer |
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Note: Airlift decisions were announced at the end of June 2006. This is a CASR Background Archive page,
this page will not be updated.
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Assured Strategic Airlift Service for the Canadian Forces on Lease – the Skylink Aviation Offer
Current CF heavy airlift is performed by Russian and Ukrainian aircraft leased from
Toronto-based Skylink Aviation Inc. Now, in something of an eleventh hour move, Skylink has
made an unsolicited bid to continue leased airlift services with an “on standby exclusive to DND”
available daily around the clock. In the past, we have recommend that DND attempt to extend NATO’s ‘Strategic Airlift Interim Solution’ to North America. In
effect, a North American-based SALIS is exactly what Skylink
International has just offered to DND.
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The critical element of Skylink’s pitch was price. According to news reports, Skylink “can meet
all the Canadian Forces long-range transport needs for $42 million a year”. To most of us, that is a
substantial amount of money (and Air Force PAFOs are always quick to point this out). It is important to
put this in perspective. Skylink’s proposed annual charge is just over 1% of the $4B [2] planned for the C-17s (were the prices to remain steady, that $4B would cover
leasing airlift for 95 years – and we worry about 40-year old Hercules! ).
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Airlifters – What $42 Million a Year Can Buy You
Skylink is offering two different strategic airlifters – both familiar to the CF. [1] These are the C-17-sized
Ilyushin IL-76 and the enormous Antonov An-124- 100. Two each of the IL-76s and An-124s would be permanently based at CFB
Trenton (to assure avail ability on short notice). Assuming 400 flying hours per year per aircraft, Skylink gives
a price of $12M per annum for the two IL-76s, and about $30M for the two An-124s. By comparison,
NATO’s SALIS assures Canada of only 125 An-124 flying hours.
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Obviously, the familiar IL-76 is the bargain (these are the airlifters currently transporting CF equipment to
Kandahar (from Turkey and direct from Edmonton) but there is equip- ment that only the huge An-124s
can carry. The Harper government seems hell-bent on buying C-17s. General Hillier’s enthusiam has been
muted, saying, regarding airlift, that “whether you rent it, whether you lease it, whether you buy it
– [we must] balance that against doing something else”. Quite so! (A container catches the
interest but contents matter more.) Even if Stephen Harper plunges on with the C-17s, this Skylink deal
would fill the gap until delivery. After that, do we have to wait 95 years for new Kandahar kit ?
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[1] Skylink actually put forward three aircraft types. The third type remained unnamed in press reports. Most likely
this third type was a combi airliner meant to augment CF Airbus CC-150 Polaris. Skylink has
access to the full range of Airbus, Boeing, and Russian airliners.
[2] The number for strategic airlifters keeps shifting. The latest quote is for $3B for C-17s perhaps reflecting
changes in the support deal.
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