MacKay: New search planes eventually, but process 'challenging'

I'm quickly growing tired of the "we would but it's too hard" line. If they finally got around to realising the procurement system is a convoluted mess, why don't they change it?

Perplexing don't even cover it. Viking out here would bend over backwards to build fixed wing Twin Otters in a heartbeat.

I'm reminded of the Asterix and Obelix cartoon where they have to complete a task in 'the place that sends you mad' Government bureaucracy and inefficiency.....they uddy up the waters in what should be a very simple process.

No that would be too simple.

They have to gum up the works with a search for a plane that can do everything.

Damn right build turbo Twin Otters. There are some proven designs that it's simply not possible to better by any significant degree. The Twin Otter is one of those; that's why there are still so many of them flying all over the world, in all kinds of conditions.

Try landing some big, fancy "state of the art" plane on a frozen lake, or putting it on floats.

The other design they should consider, if they want something a little larger, is this one:

caribou.JPG

Again a proven design, STOL-capable, good payload. Not a damn thing wrong with it.

But no, they have to muck about, waste time and spend 20x what it should cost.

Thought Viking was able to build those too, with updated engines, that could fly faster, higher, and farther.

Not that it'll ever happen but a Royal Commission that examined and uncovered exactly what the hell has gone wrong at DOD procurement would probably get the support of all Canadians, no matter where we are on the political spectrum. These guys are making the bureaucracy at the United Nations look efficient and honest in comparison.

Yeah, Viking said they could produce a new Buffalo fleet (which would be better than
'Twotters') but they were rebuffed by DND, who they claimed is married to the C27 Spartan.

I don't think we need Spartans. They're getting on toward the size of a Hercules, and why do we need such a large plane for SAR. I'll bet you could build 3 or 4 Buffalos for the price of one Spartan, and you'd have a proven Canadian-designed and -built aircraft.

The newest and shiniest toy isn't necessarily the best one.

Yeah, that's what McKay would have you believe. Government ineptitude--indeed governmetn malevolence--is such a touchstone to the modern conservatvie that the very ideathat perhaps--just perhaps--the system isn't good is completely alien to them.

McKay and all teh conservatives have masteretd this. There's no more scandals anymore; just a contemptuous finger at the Bureaucracy, and they dog pile on the civil servants who, of course, can't say anything different without losing their jobs.

Real leaders know that the buck stops at the top. Real leaders take accountability when their teams don't perform. Even Rona Ambrose is losing patience with McKay's incompetence.