The Snowbirds Demonstration Team (431 Squadron) fly the Canadair CT-114 Tutor.
Purchased in 1960 the Tutors have served for over fifty years. No longer in
service as trainers they are currently found flying only with the Snowbirds.
Nothing lasts forever and the Government has announced plans to replace them by 2020.
With a
replacement cost of $755 million being suggested it is bound to be a
controversial issue. The usual suspects are already beginning to marshal their
arguments for and against the replacements and even the continued existence of
the Snowbirds Demonstration Team itself. (DND and former team members
for, Steven Staples and the Rideau institute against)
I should
declare a personal interest here. I have watched the Snowbirds at air shows,
fly bys and practices from one side of the country to another for many years. I
may not be entirely objective, I like the Snowbirds.
Public art is
always going to be a hard sell. Who should pay for the art, whose lives does it
enrich, are the artists benefiting more then the public? Good art is
challenging and in truth few people like being challenged. It brings out the
old fogie in all of us, “that’s not art, that’s just noise!” Many of the people
who are unhappy with the existence of the Snowbirds don’t like to think of
themselves as fogies, let’s face it, fogies probably never do.
One answer to
the critics and to the need to provide value for the taxpayer’s money is to
find other uses for the Snowbirds. Properly organized, equipped and tasked a
“demonstration squadron” could have a variety of uses. It might mean fewer air
shows, but at the same time it could answer some of the critic’s complaints
while meeting more of the needs of the Canadian Forces.
For example,
right now the R.C.A.F. has at least one flying squadron that has no aircraft. 414-Electronicwarfare squadron, based out of Gatineau
Airport, Quebec, uses
leased Dassault/Dornier Alpha jets provided by Top Aces Consulting.
Needless to say the Top Aces jets do not have any CF markings and are not
included in the CF aircraft inventory.
Leased aircraft from Top
Aces, as well as others, provide support to the Army in training for their
deployments as Forward Air Controllers and Red Air adversary support. Aircraft
like this can simulate an attack on a ship, either as an opposition force, or
as a cruise missile. In some cases, their role is even to augment the CF-18 crews
in defending the ships. The DND also contracts for target towing for live fire
targeting.
The kind of trainers being
considered for Snowbird replacement aircraft are similar to the Alpha
jets used by Top Aces (in fact an argument could be made that the cheapest
thing to do would be to buy the Top Aces aircraft). We could use these aircraft to fulfill the functions we now use leased aircraft for. If you want to take this
suggestion a step farther these aircraft could even be used operationally. As
well as providing training for Army Forward Air Controllers, we could actually
provide close air support for our Army. Big, fast, expensive fighters don’t
make good close air support aircraft. Small, slower, cheaper aircraft often
work better. (There is precedence for this kind of thing; the UK actually tasked the Red Arrows with Air Defence duties during the cold war.)
The economic arguments, let
alone the military ones, for ending the lease agreement and providing our own aircraft
instead are reinforced when the aircraft involved are already being procured
for the Snowbirds. These recommendations for additional uses for the Snowbirds and
their aircraft would work with almost any reasonable, turbo-prop, new build jet or
second hand aircraft that the DND eventually purchases for use by the Snowbirds.
