The New Fighter Aircraft Project (NFA) was a

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown-i ...

defence procurement project undertaken in the late 1970s that saw the

Department of National Defence Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philippin ...

(DND) select a single new

fighter jet Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...

to replace the fleets of

CF-101 Voodoo The McDonnell CF-101 Voodoo was an all-weather interceptor aircraft operated by the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Canadian Forces between 1961 and 1984. They were manufactured by the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation of St. Louis, Missouri f ...

CF-104 Starfighter The Canadair CF-104 Starfighter (CF-111, CL-90) is a modified version of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter supersonic fighter aircraft built in Canada by Canadair under licence. It was primarily used as a ground attack aircraft, despite being d ...

and

CF-116 Freedom Fighter The Canadair CF-5 (officially designated the CF-116 Freedom Fighter) is the Canadair licensed-built version of the American Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter aircraft primarily for the Canadian Forces (as the CF-5) and the Royal Netherlands Air Forc ...

aircraft in the

Canadian Forces } The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; french: Forces armées canadiennes, ''FAC'') are the unified Military, military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air elements referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and Royal Canadian Ai ...

. Several aircraft were considered for the project, which led to some internal friction among federal government procurement staff as different aircraft were favoured among different departments. Despite several changes of government, and after a somewhat contentious selection process starting on 17 March 1977, the

McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is an all-weather, twin-engine, supersonic, carrier-capable, multirole combat aircraft, designed as both a fighter and attack aircraft (hence the F/A designation). Designed by McDonnell Douglas (now par ...

was selected as the winner of the NFA project on 10 April 1980. Designated the

CF-18 Hornet The McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet (official military designation CF-188) is a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) variant of the American McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet fighter aircraft. In 1980, the F/A-18 was selected as the winner of the New ...

Canadian Forces Air Command The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environm ...

(now called the

Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environ ...

), a total of 138 aircraft were delivered between 1982 and 1988.

History

Background

Air resources within the Canadian Forces had suffered from a long period of neglect and downsizing during the late 1960s and early 1970s that led to the aging of much of their military equipment. In the early 1970s the government came under increasing pressure from its

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

allies to redress this imbalance. This period came to an end in November 1975 after the governing

Liberal Party of Canada The Liberal Party of Canada (french: Parti libéral du Canada, region=CA) is a federal political party in Canada. The party espouses the principles of liberalism,McCall, Christina; Stephen Clarkson"Liberal Party". ''The Canadian Encyclopedia' ...

's tenth National Convention saw a policy reversing defence budget cutbacks in the early 1970s and the beginning of a modernization process across the entire Canadian Forces structure; this followed a decision in September 1975 that saw all air resources within the Canadian Forces merged into a new entity called Air Command (AIRCOM).Michael Tucker, "Canadian Foreign Policy: Contemporary Issues and Themes", McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1980, pp. 155-163, As there had been little military capital expenditure over the prior five years, modernizing the forces would be an expensive process. In order to lower fiscal spending for the ambitious program, a series of individual procurement projects were proposed to be spread out over the five-year period from 1977 to 1982. During the 1970s, the Canadian Forces was tasked with four primary military duties; air defence of North America as part of

NORAD North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD ), known until March 1981 as the North American Air Defense Command, is a combined organization of the United States and Canada that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and protection ...

, anti-submarine and related duties in the North Atlantic as part of NATO, a small role within the overall land-force structure of NATO in Western Europe, and the specialist role of reinforcing

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

with one brigade and all required air, sea and other support that might be needed for that mission (collectively known as "

CAST Cast may refer to: Music * Cast (band), an English alternative rock band * Cast (Mexican band), a progressive Mexican rock band * The Cast, a Scottish musical duo: Mairi Campbell and Dave Francis * ''Cast'', a 2012 album by Trespassers William ...

"). With the exception of air transport, equipment for all of these tasks was deemed to be lacking. Six procurement projects became the initial focus of the late 1970s upgrade process. For

Maritime Command Allied Maritime Command (MARCOM) is the central command of all NATO maritime forces and the Commander MARCOM is the prime maritime advisor to the Alliance. When directed by the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), it provides the core of th ...

(MARCOM) a new "Long Range Patrol Aircraft Project" (LRPA) would dramatically increase their anti-submarine capabilities, while a new " Patrol Frigate Project" would supplement the recently procured and extremely capable .

Force Mobile Command The Canadian Army (french: Armée canadienne) is the command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also resp ...

needed a new

main battle tank A main battle tank (MBT), also known as a battle tank or universal tank, is a tank that fills the role of armor-protected direct fire and maneuver in many modern armies. Cold War-era development of more powerful engines, better suspension s ...

to replace the outdated

Centurion A centurion (; la, centurio , . la, centuriones, label=none; grc-gre, κεντυρίων, kentyríōn, or ) was a position in the Roman army during classical antiquity, nominally the commander of a century (), a military unit of around 80 le ...

as well as new command and logistics vehicles. Force Mobile Command also identified the need for a new tactical ground attack aircraft to support Canada's ground forces in Western Europe, while the newly created Air Command needed a new aircraft to replace their somewhat motley collection of increasingly dated fighter and

interceptor aircraft An interceptor aircraft, or simply interceptor, is a type of fighter aircraft designed specifically for the defensive interception role against an attacking enemy aircraft, particularly bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. Aircraft that are ...

. Inter-service priorities were quickly decided. First up was the Long Range Patrol Aircraft Project (LRPA), eventually filled by the

Lockheed CP-140 Aurora The Lockheed CP-140 Aurora is a maritime patrol aircraft operated by the Royal Canadian Air Force. The aircraft is based on the Lockheed P-3 Orion airframe, but mounts the electronics suite of the Lockheed S-3 Viking. "Aurora" refers to the ...

, a modified version of the

P-3 Orion The Lockheed P-3 Orion is a four-engined, turboprop anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft developed for the United States Navy and introduced in the 1960s. Lockheed based it on the L-188 Electra commercial airliner.

NFA

The need for a new high-performance fighter was next on the list of priorities for the government's

(DND). With the problems in the LRPA project still ongoing, it was imperative that the NFA project avoid these issues at all costs. There was serious concern that the DND would be considered incapable of handling its newly increased budget if problems resulting from the LRPA project continued. In this case, they might be stripped of their direction over the purchasing process, or at least face a shake up within the ranks. Immediately following the NFA project would be the new

Canadian Patrol Frigate Project The Canadian Patrol Frigate Project (CPFP) was a procurement project undertaken by the Department of National Defence of Canada beginning in 1975 to find a replacement for the 20 combined ships of the , , , and classes of destroyer escorts. The C ...

(CPF), and if the NFA project ran into the same sorts of problems as the LRPA project, the CPF project would likely suffer from budgetary constraints, downsizing, or potential cancellation.Michael Atkinson and Kim Richard Nossal, "Bureaucratic politics and the new fighter aircraft decisions", ''Canadian Public Administration'', Vol. 24, No. 4 (Winter 1981), pp. 531-558 In order to avoid these possibilities, DND put into place a number of new policies for the NFA project aimed at ensuring the established budget would be followed. For one, the NFA project demanded that whatever aircraft was selected would have to be completely "off the shelf", in order to avoid "gold plating" problems that had driven up the price of the LRPA. Additionally, the NFA project would request a budget that included ''all'' costs; training, spares, even the 12% import taxes that would have to be paid to the federal

Department of Finance A ministry of finance is a part of the government in most countries that is responsible for matters related to the finance. Lists of current ministries of finance Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Finance (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Finance and Ec ...

and any similar fees that might have to be paid to the foreign government to offset research and development they had spent on the program. Finally, a NFA project office was set up to ensure that all three stakeholders would have their requirements fairly presented in the procurement. Under the LRPA project the various departments responsible for coordinating military procurement reported to DND, however, under the NFA project they all co-managed a new NFA Project Office (NFA/PO). This ensured that the technical requirements of the DND would not override the budgetary ones of the federal

Department of Supply and Services Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military * Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

(DSS), nor the industrial benefits package required by the federal Department of Industry, Trade and Commerce (DITC). All three proposed aircraft considered for the NFA project would be considered peers, and the NFA project staff's work would be overseen by a group of deputy ministers and senior bureaucrats from the federal

Department of External Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...

, the

Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS; french: Secrétariat du Conseil du Trésor du Canada, SCT) is the administrative branch of the Treasury Board of Canada (the committee of ministers responsible for the financial management of the fe ...

and the Privy Council Office.Mason, "Managing the NFA Program", p. 9

Selection process

The existing AIRCOM fleet consisted of the

as the primary all-weather

interceptor Interceptor may refer to: Vehicles * Interceptor aircraft (or simply "interceptor"), a type of point defense fighter aircraft designed specifically to intercept and destroy enemy aircraft * Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, a police car * ...

for duties within the

framework, the

as the primary

day fighter A day fighter is a fighter aircraft equipped only to fight during the day. More specifically, it refers to a multi-purpose aircraft that does not include equipment for fighting at night (such as a radar and specialized avionics), although it is so ...

and tactical attack aircraft in Europe, and the

supplementing both in multiple roles. By the late 1970s the Voodoo was considered outdated and growing increasingly expensive to operate and maintain, given its

tube Tube or tubes may refer to: * ''Tube'' (2003 film), a 2003 Korean film * ''The Tube'' (TV series), a music related TV series by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom * "Tubes" (Peter Dale), performer on the Soccer AM television show * Tube (band), a ...

-based electronics. None of its primary systems - missiles, radar or engines - were still being used in other operational aircraft in the Canadian Forces or its allies, and spares had to be taken from mothballed units. The CF-104 Starfighter was originally the day counterpart to the CF-101 Voodoo and it had also served a nuclear-strike role when that was the basis for most military thinking in NATO. Since 1971 the nuclear weapons role of the Canadian Forces had been abandoned, and since then the CF-104 Starfighter saw its mission switched primarily to a low-level strike role that it was not particularly well suited to. The CF-116 Freedom Fighter was considerably more modern, but was a much simpler aircraft that was useful primarily in a supporting light strike role. The goal of the NFA project was to select a single multi-purpose aircraft that could fill all of the roles of the existing fleet, while also reducing operational costs and improving availability and capability. In the fifteen years since the CF-104s had been procured, there had been significant advancements in engines, aerodynamics and especially mission electronics to permit all of these roles to be combined in a single multi-role aircraft. A number of such designs were in the process of being introduced by air forces around the world. Of particular interest was the recent

Lightweight Fighter The Lightweight Fighter (LWF) program was a United States Air Force technology evaluation program initiated in the late 1960s by a group of officers and defense analysts known as the " Fighter Mafia". It was spurred by then-Major John Boyd's ' ...

(LWF) project in the United States that had produced the

F-16 Fighting Falcon The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it evolved into a successful ...

for the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army S ...

(USAF), an aircraft of such versatility that it had rapidly generated orders from other air forces around the world in what American public broadcaster

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of ed ...

described as "The Sale of the Century." In September 1977 the NFA project office published a four-volume request for proposals (RFP), each volume outlining one area of interest. These included the technical specifications, risk mitigation, costs, the industrial benefit program and contractual obligations. In a subsequent decision, the NFA project budget was limited to around $2.34 billion ADto procure between 130 and 150 aircraft, ideally as many as possible within the budget. This represented a decrease in fleet numbers; there were 66 CF-101 Voodoo and 200 CF-104 Starfighter aircraft being replaced by less than half that number of NFA aircraft. Cabinet officially approved the NFA budget on 27 November 1977. The RFP was sent to six companies who had aircraft that might fit the requirements; the

Grumman Aerospace Corporation The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, later Grumman Aerospace Corporation, was a 20th century American producer of military and civilian aircraft. Founded on December 6, 1929, by Leroy Grumman and his business partners, it merged in 1994 ...

F-14 Tomcat The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is an American carrier-capable supersonic, twin-engine, two-seat, twin-tail, variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft. The Tomcat was developed for the United States Navy's Naval Fighter Experimental (VFX) program after t ...

McDonnell Douglas Corporation McDonnell Douglas was a major American aerospace manufacturing corporation and defense contractor, formed by the merger of McDonnell Aircraft and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. Between then and its own merger with Boeing in 1997, it pro ...

F-15 Eagle The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle is an American twin-engine, all-weather tactical fighter aircraft designed by McDonnell Douglas (now part of Boeing). Following reviews of proposals, the United States Air Force selected McDonnell Dougla ...

and

F/A-18 The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is an all-weather, twinjet, twin-engine, supersonic aircraft, supersonic, carrier-based aircraft, carrier-capable, Multirole combat aircraft, multirole combat aircraft, designed as both a Fighter aircraft, ...

Northrop Corporation Northrop Corporation was an American aircraft manufacturer from its formation in 1939 until its 1994 merger with Grumman to form Northrop Grumman. The company is known for its development of the flying wing design, most successfully the B-2 Spiri ...

's F-18L (a Northrop-only stripped-down version of the joint Northrop and McDonnell Douglas F/A-18), General Dynamic Corporation's F-16,

Dassault-Breguet Dassault Aviation SA () is a French manufacturer of military aircraft and business jets. It was founded in 1929 by Marcel Bloch as Société des Avions Marcel Bloch or "MB". After World War II, Marcel Bloch changed his name to Marcel Dass ...

Mirage F1 The Dassault Mirage F1 is a French Fighter aircraft, fighter and attack aircraft Aircraft design process, designed and manufactured by Dassault Aviation. It was developed as a successor to the popular Dassault Mirage III, Mirage III family. Du ...

and the

Panavia Tornado The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine, variable-sweep wing multirole combat aircraft, jointly developed and manufactured by Italy, the United Kingdom and West Germany. There are three primary Tornado variants: the Tornado IDS ( int ...

. The NFA project quickly eliminated the F-14, F-15, and the Tornado due to the high purchase prices. The Mirage F1 was withdrawn as it could not compete with the others in performance terms, however, Dassault-Breguet proposed the

Mirage 2000 The Dassault Mirage 2000 is a French multirole, single-engine, fourth-generation jet fighter manufactured by Dassault Aviation. It was designed in the late 1970s as a lightweight fighter to replace the Mirage III for the French Air Force ('' ...

in its place. This proposal was not received by the February 1, 1978 cut-off date imposed by the NFA project, thus in 1978, the NFA project short listed just three aircraft; the F-16, the F-18L and the F/A-18.

A contender is eliminated

The F/A-18 had started life as the Northrop

F-17 Cobra The Northrop YF-17 (nicknamed "Cobra") is a prototype lightweight fighter aircraft designed by Northrop Corporation, Northrop aviation for the United States Air Force's Lightweight Fighter (LWF) technology evaluation program. The LWF was initia ...

, a direct competitor to the F-16 during the LWF competition.Baugher, Joe
"Origin of McDonnell Douglas F-18 Hornet"
April 2000 When the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

expressed an interest in a new multi-role fighter jet under their

VFAX VFAX for Naval Fighter Attack Experimental was actually two specifications for two US Navy fighter projects. The first was for a low cost lightweight complement for the General Dynamics–Grumman F-111B which could replace the McDonnell F-4 Ph ...

project, the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washi ...

instead cancelled VFAX and demanded that the U.S. Navy use one of the LWF aircraft under a new program called the "Navy Air Combat Fighter Project" (NACF). Accordingly, the U.S. Navy asked for proposals for versions of the two aircraft with various carrier-based features, including arrestor hooks, catapult bars, folding wings and dramatically strengthened landing gear and fuselage. Another requirement was that the entries would have to be built by companies with recent naval aircraft experience, however, neither General Dynamics nor Northrop had built a carrier aircraft for some time. Both partnered with other companies for the modified design; General Dynamics with

Ling-Temco-Vought Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV) was a large American conglomerate which existed from 1961 to 2000. At its peak, it was involved in aerospace, airlines, electronics, steel manufacturing, sporting goods, meat packing, car rentals, and pharmaceuticals, a ...

for what would be termed the F-16N, and Northrop with McDonnell Douglas for what would become the F/A-18. Among the many features that fighter jets used by the U.S. Navy for carrier operations required was the ability to quickly "spool up" their engines to full power. Should the aircraft miss the

arrestor wires An arresting gear, or arrestor gear, is a mechanical system used to rapidly decelerate an aircraft as it lands. Arresting gear on aircraft carriers is an essential component of naval aviation, and it is most commonly used on CATOBAR and STOBAR ...

as it attempts to land on a carrier, there is no way that it can stop in time and must immediately add power for a

go-around In aviation, a go-around is an aborted landing of an aircraft that is on final approach or has already touched down. A go-around can either be initiated by the pilot flying or requested by air traffic control for various reasons, such as an uns ...

. This is not a minor concern; it occurs so commonly that such a landing has its own name, a " bolter". Generally speaking, the rate that an engine can be spooled up is roughly a function of its cross-sectional size, so an otherwise identical aircraft mounting two smaller engines instead of one larger one will typically have much better throttle response. For this reason, among others, the U.S. Navy favored the two-engine layout of the F-18 from the start, and selected it as the winner of NACF project in 1976. When the two companies joined forces for the F/A-18, part of the agreement was that Northrop would develop a land-based version of the F/A-18 that removed the naval equipment and lightened the airframe. The resulting F-18L was about 30% lighter than the F/A-18A, about take-off weight as opposed to and as a result had considerably better performance and range. The aircraft was over 80% similar otherwise, and would be built on the same production lines. Naval versions (the F/A-18 Hornet) would be built 60% by McDonnell and 40% by Northrop, while the land versions would reverse this arrangement. Like the U.S. Navy, the upper upper echelons of the

Air Command (AIRCOM) also favoured having an aircraft with two engines, although for different reasons. Additionally, AIRCOM was adamant about having the ability to fire the medium-range

AIM-7 Sparrow The AIM-7 Sparrow (Air Intercept Missile) is an American, medium-range semi-active radar homing air-to-air missile operated by the United States Air Force, United States Navy, and United States Marine Corps, as well as other various air forces ...

air-to-air missile."Canada gets tough on NFA offsets"
''Flight International'', 29 September 1979, p. 1028. Neither the F-16 Falcon nor the YF-17 Cobra supported the Sparrow, in keeping with the short-range "dogfighter" role as originally envisioned. The U.S. Navy had also demanded support for the Sparrow, as they were less interested in fighter-to-fighter combat as they were in long-range interception of both aircraft and

anti-shipping missile An anti-ship missile (AShM) is a guided missile that is designed for use against ships and large boats. Most anti-ship missiles are of the sea skimming variety, and many use a combination of inertial guidance and active radar homing. A good n ...

s. Both aircraft in the LWF project studied supporting longer-range radar as part of their naval modifications, but as the F-16 modification never proceeded beyond the mockup stage, only the F/A-18 actually added AIM-7 support. This put the two F-18 variants in the lead from the start. From a strict technical point of view the F-18L (the Northrop version) was the better aircraft for the NFA project, with performance roughly equal to the F-16, Sparrow capability, and the twin-engine design that the Canadian Forces favored. Compared to the F/A-18A (the McDonnel-Douglas version), its lower weight and resulting better range would also be very useful in the air defence role over Canada. The F-18L was also offered with a lucrative industrial program; Northrop agreed to move major portions of the F-18L project to Canada, including investing in

carbon composite Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon compo ...

construction techniques to build the wings and tail sections. If accepted, Canada would become the primary construction site for all of these components, which meant that any additional orders for the F-18L from other countries would result in major export contracts for Canadian companies. Unsurprisingly, the federal Department of Industry, Trade and Commerce (DITC) strongly favored the F-18L offer for the industrial benefits to the Canadian economy. However, contrary to the original conception of the NFA project office, DITC had only two full-time staff in the office compared to dozens from the

(DND) and the

(DSS). Both of the other groups expressed concerns about the offer. As there appeared to be no orders from the United States for the F-18L variant, any production run would be based on the Canadian procurement and any potential exports. Several other countries had expressed a similar interest in the F-18L, notably

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wit ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ( Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

and Australia, but none of these were a "sure thing." If these deals did not go through, Canada would be the only operator of the aircraft, something DND considered completely unacceptable. Likewise, DSS's primary interest was iron-clad contracts with predictable delivery time frames and budgets, and strongly supported the "off the shelf" requirement. Therefore, in October 1978 the NFA project office overrode DITC's concerns and reduced the list to only the F-16 and the F/A-18A, a decision that the federal cabinet accepted on 23 November 1978. At the time there was some talk of going ahead with the F-18L based on the ''potential'' Canadian order alone. Several other air forces were in the process of looking at similar aircraft, and the upgrades carried out during the conversion from the F-17 to the F/A-18 made the F-18L a much more worthy competitor to the F-16 in the export market. However, Northrop found themselves constantly being outmaneuvered by the McDonnell Douglas sales team who would make counteroffers whenever the F-18L was proposed for foreign sales.Joe Baugher
"Northrop F-18L"
April 2000 This eventually led to a lawsuit between the companies, which was settled in 1985 with McDonnell Douglas agreeing to pay Northrop $50 million for complete rights to the design without admitting wrongdoing. By then Northrop had ended work on F-18L.

Selecting the winner

With the elimination of the F-18L on November 23, 1978, the NFA project moved into its final phase. In order to expedite the eventual order, the NFA project office started negotiating contracts with both companies with the understanding that one would be selected once a final decision had been made. This led to intensive investigations of the industrial offset programs. General Dynamics was somewhat limited in their offers due to similar arrangements made with European countries, which stated that 15% of all aircraft delivered to 3rd party countries, including Canada, would have to be built in Europe. This would not be insurmountable, but definitely presented some problems in negotiations. Douglas (prior to the formation of McDonnell Douglas) had been building tail assemblies for the

DC-9 The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 is an American five-abreast single-aisle aircraft designed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It was initially produced by the developer company as the Douglas DC-9 until August 1967 and then by McDonnell Douglas. After ...

at the former

Avro Canada Avro Canada was a Canadian aircraft manufacturing company. It was founded in 1945 as an aircraft plant and within 13 years became the third-largest company in Canada, one of the largest 100 companies in the world, and directly employing over 5 ...

factories at the

Toronto International Airport Lester B. Pearson International Airport , commonly known as Toronto Pearson International Airport, is an international airport located in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It is the main airport serving Toronto, its metropolitan area, and the surro ...

for some time. Their industrial offset program would include modernizing these plants and moving in additional work to include wings for the

KC-10 The McDonnell Douglas KC-10 Extender is an American aerial refueling tanker aircraft operated by the United States Air Force (USAF). A military version of the three-engine DC-10 airliner, the KC-10 was developed from the Advanced Tanker Cargo A ...

and

MD-11 The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 is an American tri-jet wide-body airliner manufactured by American McDonnell Douglas (MDC) and later by Boeing. Following DC-10 development studies, the MD-11 program was launched on December 30, 1986. Assembly of th ...

, wings, empennage and cabin floors for the

MD-80 The McDonnell Douglas MD-80 is a series of five-abreast single-aisle airliners developed by McDonnell Douglas. It was produced by the developer company until August 1997 and then by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The MD-80 was the second gener ...

, as well as side panels and pylons for the F/A-18.Mike Lombardi and Larry Merritt
"Toronto's long history of aerospace achievement"
''Boeing Frontiers'', Vol. 04, Issue 2 (June 2005) This proposal was greatly worrying to the DITC, and they became much more active in the negotiations. Their concern was based on existing

Defence Production Sharing Agreement The Defence Production Sharing Agreement is a bilateral trade agreement between the United States and Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Oce ...

(DPSA) between the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

and Canada that was put in place to balance the amount of trade in military goods between the countries. A major procurement like the NFA meant the United States either had to purchase a similar amount of military equipment from Canada, or alternately offset the purchase though military production in Canada. A program like Northop's F-18L was purely military in nature, so any production in Canada would be counted against this balance, but the McDonnell Douglas offer was mostly in civilian goods, which had to be accounted separately. McDonnell was adamant that their DC-9 and DC-10 work be counted against the balance, an attitude the Canadians described as "insistent". The DITC was concerned that the U.S. government would have to be persuaded to re-negotiate the agreement in this case, or make a large military purchase. Neither option seemed straightforward, and would have placed a burden on the DITC's dealings in the future. While the negotiations with McDonnell Douglas were continuing,

Air Canada Air Canada is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocea ...

announced it was purchasing the

Lockheed L-1011 The Lockheed L-1011 TriStar, also known as the L-1011 (pronounced "El-ten-eleven") and TriStar, is an American medium-to-long-range, wide-body trijet airliner built by the Lockheed Corporation. It was the third wide-body airliner to enter comme ...

to add to its wide-body fleet. This greatly angered

James Smith McDonnell James Smith "Mac" McDonnell (April 9, 1899 – August 22, 1980) was an American aviator, engineer, and businessman. He was an aviation pioneer and founder of McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, later McDonnell Douglas, and the James S. McDonn ...

, the chief executive officer of McDonnell Douglas, who personally threatened to cancel his company's participation in the NFA project. Neither DND and DSS wanted this to happen, and wanted both the F-16 and F/A-18 aircraft to remain in contention for the NFA project. However, these concerns were later muted when a report was leaked that suggested the F/A-18 was favoured to win the NFA project, and it appeared that the DITC's concerns were going to be overridden. As a result, McDonnell Douglas became much less vocal about the Air Canada purchase. Contract negotiations went on throughout 1978 and 1979, continuing through two federal elections. The proposed contracts were finalized by June, when then new

Progressive Conservative Party of Canada The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (PC; french: Parti progressiste-conservateur du Canada) was a centre-right federal political party in Canada that existed from 1942 to 2003. From Canadian Confederation in 1867 until 1942, the ...

formed a minority government. A lengthy review of the contracts followed, and was completed in early December. These were tabled to be signed off on December 14, however, on the 13th the Progressive Conservative government failed a

vote of non-confidence A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or mana ...

and the NFA project was set aside. The

was elected to a majority government in the ensuing elections, and on February 19, 1980, formal negotiations for the NFA project started again. Rumours that the F/A-18 was the winner had surfaced by this point, and General Dynamics started a campaign to have the selection discarded. As part of their industrial program, the

Pratt & Whitney F100 The Pratt & Whitney F100 (company designation JTF22) is an afterburning turbofan engine manufactured by Pratt & Whitney that powers the F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon. Development In 1967, the United States Navy and United States Air Fo ...

engines used in the F-16 would be built at

Pratt & Whitney Canada Pratt & Whitney Canada (PWC or P&WC) is a Canada-based aircraft engine manufacturer. PWC's headquarters are in Longueuil, Quebec, just outside Montreal. It is a division of the larger US-based Pratt & Whitney (P&W), itself a business unit of ...

in Quebec, which would have been a major windfall for that province. In late March

René Lévesque René Lévesque (; August 24, 1922 – November 1, 1987) was a Québécois people, Québécois politician and journalist who served as the 23rd premier of Quebec from 1976 to 1985. He was the first Québécois political leader since Canad ...

of the governing

Parti Québécois The Parti Québécois (; ; PQ) is a Quebec sovereignty movement, sovereignist and social democracy, social democratic provincial list of political parties in Quebec, political party in Quebec, Canada. The PQ advocates Quebec sovereignty movement ...

publicly announced that the F-16 should be selected because it would provide Quebec with considerably more than the competing McDonnell Douglas offer. This led to a meeting between several interested parties in the federal government on April 9, 1980, and after transferring several million dollars from federal projects in Ontario to Quebec the objections disappeared. Among these,

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

agreed to open a plant in Quebec that would produce turbine fan blades for commercial engines."Canada gets relief from F-18 R&D costs"
''Flight International", 10 January 1981, p. 56 The following day (April 10, 1980) the F/A-18 Hornet was officially announced as the winner of the NFA project. On 16 April the procurement contracts were signed, with a ceiling of $2.369 billion (USD) for 137 aircraft, and an industrial package of C$2.453 billion to be invested by McDonnell Douglas in Canada over a period ending in 1995.

Aftermath

The next day (April 11, 1980) the federal government ran a series of advertisements in national newspapers to explain their choice for the NFA project. The arguments focused primarily on the financial aspects of the deal. Despite the higher unit cost of the F/A-18 Hornet, the industrial program would more than pay for the entire program. Reasons for the selection listed by the Canadian Forces included two engines for reliability (considered essential for conducting Arctic sovereignty and over-the-water patrols), an excellent radar set, and a lower cost than the F-14 or F-15. Nevertheless, the press was skeptical of the program, particularly its aircraft carrier-based design, even though Canada operated no aircraft carriers. As the CBC's ''

As It Happens ''As It Happens'' is a Canadian interview show that airs on CBC Radio One in Canada and various public radio stations in the United States through Public Radio Exchange. Its 50th anniversary was celebrated on-air on November 16, 2018. It has bee ...

'' noted, the F/A-18 could not even fly from Toronto to Montreal without carrying extra fuel. In spite of outward appearances, the selection of the F/A-18 Hornet for the NFA project was not a "sure thing". The contract had been left open to the very last minute and continued to see changes even in the weeks immediately before the selection was announced. Additionally, the F-14 almost ended up being purchased from

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkm ...

, as their fleet was facing the prospect of falling into disuse due to a lack of spares in the aftermath of the

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dyna ...

. Canadian diplomats tried to convince the Iranians to sell its fleet of eighty almost-new fighters at cut-rate prices. However, the negotiations fell through in the aftermath of the

Canadian caper The "Canadian Caper" was the joint covert rescue by the Canadian government and the CIA of six American diplomats who had evaded capture during the seizure of the United States embassy in Tehran, Iran, on November 4, 1979, after the Iranian ...

in which six American diplomats were smuggled out of Iran from the Canadian embassy. Several changes were made to the program in the following years. The government came under increasing criticism for replacing a large number of aircraft with a much smaller one, a number that would not allow the forces to provide both their NORAD role as well as their ground attack role in Europe. Over the next months a deal was worked out with the US government that dropped $70 million from the price of each aircraft's embedded R&D costs, in exchange for the promise to buy additional aircraft to the same total cost. This raised the purchase to 137 aircraft, eight more than originally planned. The same deal also allowed the purchase of an additional 20 "attrition aircraft" without paying any R&D, reducing the price by $880,000 per aircraft. A total of 138 aircraft, designated the

CF-188 Hornet The McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet (official military designation CF-188) is a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) variant of the American McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet fighter aircraft. In 1980, the F/A-18 was selected as the winner of the New ...

, were delivered to Canada from 1982 to 1988.Jenkins, Dennis R. ''F/A-18 Hornet: A Navy Success Story'', McGraw-Hill, 2000. .

Notes

References

{{Royal Canadian Air Force Royal Canadian Air Force Canadian defence procurement