Top Aces Announces FAA Certification of F-16 Fighter Aircraft Leading provider of adversary air training is the first private company in the world to operate F-16s under commercial license. Mesa, AZ, May 19, 2021 – Top Aces Corp., a leading provider of advanced adversary training, today announced a ground breaking milestone as its newly-acquired F-16 fighter aircraft earned FAA certification and completed its first flight. In order to support... Read more ..read more

This is an opinion piece by the author for Forum member discussion only and not to be disseminated to any other media. Since the recent Federal Election, it is useful to look back at the two major political parties to review their defence procurement policies. The Conservative Party platform has a commitment to a fast-track replacement of the ageing CF-18s for the RCAF, and to ensure ships promised to the RCN and Canadian Coast Guard are delivered much sooner under the 2010 National... Read more ..read more

According to our “newly minted” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canada seems to be immediately down-playing the importance of the “Three-Eyes” AUKUS nuclear technology transfer deal between the United States, Australia and United Kingdom as merely a way for the US to sell nuclear submarines to Australia and does not see any significant implications for Canada and dismisses the importance of this deal and the serious long-term ramifications for Canada as a “Five-Eyes” member. The following... Read more ..read more

Canadian Shipbuilding-Budgets Can Sink Warships​ An opinion article from the writer only and not to be published anywhere but this forum. Recent Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) and Auditor General (AG) reports into Canada’s National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS) paint a challenging picture for a multi-decade effort to build 52 large ships for both the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) and Canadian Coast Guard (CCG). The near consensus response from... Read more ..read more

Lockheed Martin Canada has just generated (20 Sept 2021) another CG Graphics of the CSC Frigate that seem to have some changes to them For example, the radar mast seems to be much higher, along with the Satcom antennas being moved from midships either side of the CAAM missiles to just abaft the bridge and seem to be a bit smaller. The 32 VLS canisters that were just aft of the gun now seem to have only 24 canisters. And there is a small canister just abaft of the boat bay on the starboard... Read more ..read more

'It's less a question of if ... and more a question of what,' says senior Canadian government official​ British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, left, welcomes Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during official arrivals for a NATO leaders meeting at The Grove hotel and resort in Watford, Hertfordshire, England, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2019. (Francisco Seco/The Associated Press) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his counterparts from the United... Read more ..read more

Members of the Canadian Forces salute. (Brent Just/Getty Images) Canada’s armed forces are to ditch gendered uniforms and allow service members to choose the get-up “most comfortable” to them. The Department of National Defence is to bring in genderless uniforms for Canadian Armed Forces troops, according to a memo obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter, a news outlet that covers the... Read more ..read more

Often enough the GOC includes such things as infrastructure to the overall cost of a project. We saw this with AOPS where jetties specially designed to host this class ship were built in Halifax and Esquimalt and even the naval arctic fueling facility was added to the overall cost of the AOPS project. Other things that are often overlooked is dry docking facilities. Currently the GOC do not possess the docks in Halifax to host the AOPS or CSC for maintenance. The existing docking facilities... Read more ..read more

Heading back to Canada after repairs in Norway from a fire. Picture courtesy of Warship Cams ..read more

The Kingston Class has reached its design life of 25 years. After a through review of the class structural integrity ABS (American Bureau of Shipping) has determined the class can be extended up 15 additional years due to the shape the ships are in. HMCS Kingston the first ship to reach the 25 yr milestone only recently came back from its 5 year docking and had its certification extended by 5 years with review. The Kingston Class replacement project is expected to be stood up within the next... Read more ..read more