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Operational requirements are already defined
The DGAM will consider a public-private solution to replace the C-101 from 2021
10/17/2017 |
The Ministry of Defense is already working on the replacement of the Air Force's C-101 Avioject (E-25), which will have to be replaced by 2021
and says it will consider a public-private solution,
which would be the first of this the Spanish Armed Forces .
The Directorate General of Armament and Material (DGAM) ,
responsible for this type of procurement contracts,
explained that the future Airplane Basic Coach program for the General Air Academy already has a Staff Requirement REM) "validated".
These same sources add that it is even included in the transition Military Objectives (CMOs) established by the Defense Staff (Emad) planners, although they recognize that "without economic allocation".
Prospecting the market
The replacement of the current capacity, the C-101 Aviojet,
manufactured by the old Spanish CASA ,
now integrated in the European group Airbus ,
will be "necessary", affirms the DGAM for 2021
according to the aforementioned Requirements of Staff.
That is, when the aircraft currently used to train future pilots of the Spanish Air Force is approaching 40 years of operative life,
since it made its first flight in 1977 and went into operation in Spain in 1980.
From the Ministry of Defense they point out that, in this process, a total of thirteen companies have already been given what they have called a "market survey questionnaire".
Although it has not officially revealed the companies that have received the questionnaire or the type of aircraft that is sought,
has confirmed that include the main manufacturers of this type of training apparatus as Airbus , which among other options, has the Polish model PZL-130 Orlik MPT.
Also receiving the request for information is the Italian Leonardo,
which some place among the favorites among different circles of the Air Force,
which markets several options through its subsidiary Alenia Aermacchi as the M-345 jet training aircraft and the M-236 , M-236FA and M-346FT models .
The DRS T-100 version is the one that Leonardo offered to the TX program of the American Air Force as an advanced trainer.
Other companies included in this Spanish list are
the US Beechcraft , part of the multinational Textron , with the T-6C Texan II ;
the Swiss Pilatus Aircraft , with PC-21
- recently selected by France for a similar program - and the
Brazilian Embraer that offers the EMB-314 Super Tucano .
Other models, such as the German Grob 1 20 TP , the Korean KAI KT-1 , developed for the T-50 Golden Eagle for the US program TX, and the L-39NG of the Czech Aero .
The public-private option
The sources consulted by this newspaper also confirmed that the Spanish Ministry of Defense is also interested in receiving information from other companies
such as the Spanish Indra or the former Inaer ,
currently part of the Babcock Spain group.
According to the DGAM itself, "there are several options regarding the alternatives to obtain".
For this reason, the Spanish Ministry of Defense publicly recognizes that it is open to considering the use of public-private partnership.
He even asserts that this formula "would allow the annual amounts of a possible payment plan to be reduced but would bring with it a longer-term commitment."
For the first time in the Spanish Armed Forces, an Army is open to studying the possibility of
not directly acquiring a capacity - in this case training aircraft -
and opting to hire the services of a private company that provides it,
paying for use without having which assume their maintenance or logistics.
This type of contract is already a reality, for example with flight simulators.
In January 2017, the French DGAM awarded Babcock France and Dassault Aviation a contract for the provision of a training platform for the French Air Force. The 11-year contract includes the trainer aircraft - in this case the Pilatus PC-21 - simulation systems and the modernization of the training facilities for pilots to be carried out on the premises French Air Force at the base of Cognac. The first aircraft is scheduled to be delivered in March 2018 and the contract has a value close to 400 million euros.
"The variety of different options for acquiring capacity will lead to a comparison between the different possibilities that could be homogeneous and in which the value of certain parameters will be determined according to the strategy of acquisition finally chosen," concludes DGAM.