Airbus A400M Back in the Canadian Race?
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In November 2005 Canada launched an urgent $4 billion election-eve competition (following sustained inaction) to replace at least 19 of its extremely aged CC-130E Hercules aircraft. Some factors made a win by Boeing’s C-17 or EADS’ A400M challenging, while a Russian alternative could have given Lockheed’s favored C-130J Hercules a run for its money.
Now CASR reports that the competition has taken an interesting twist. New C-130Js will apparently be unavailable for delivery until 2010, which would break the must-replace deadline of 3 years. Meanwhile, EADS Airbus Military is reportedly floating a trial balloon around acquiring and refurbishing C-130Hs within the deadline, then offering them later as trade-ins for the Airbus A400M. Will Lockheed now follow suit with a similar offer?
