Ottawa looking at retiring some older military equipment — including the Snowbird jets

The Department of National Defence is actively considering whether to retire some older ships, planes and other items of equipment that have become difficult and costly to maintain — including the aircraft belonging to the iconic Snowbird demonstration squadron.

In an interview with CBC News, Defence Minister Bill Blair insisted no decisions have been made and he's waiting on advice from military leaders.

Blair said the 1960s-vintage CT-114 Tutor jets used by the Snowbirds have been in service too long. He said he's asked the commander of the air force whether the planes — which were given a life extension to 2025 and are now going through an additional upgrade — have finally "aged out."

"The reality is the Tutor plane is well past its utility," Blair said. "There are even some safety issues that are deeply concerning to me and I've received assurances that through this flight season ... they can manage those safely, but it continues to persist as a concern."

Blair did not elaborate on those safety issues. The aircraft have crashed a number of times. Capt. Jennifer Casey, an air force public affairs officer, died on May 17, 2020 when the Snowbird she was in crashed after takeoff near Kamloops, B.C.

The air force recently installed new avionics the defence department says can keep the demonstration jets flying until perhaps 2030 — almost 70 years after they were purchased.

Defence sources say the navy's 1990s vintage minesweepers, known as maritime coastal defence vessels (MCDVs), could also be on the chopping block.

"There's a number of our ships that have ... they're becoming increasingly expensive, almost prohibitively expensive to maintain and ... even to staff," Blair said, adding he's awaiting a recommendation from the commander of the navy.

The country's soon-to-retire top military commander, Gen. Wayne Eyre, said the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) is examining a list of older capabilities that should be replaced, the time it might take to replace them and whether it makes sense to take that equipment out of service in the meantime.

Eyre would not discuss details, saying the decision ultimately will be up to the minister and his successor, Lt.-Gen. (soon to be General) Jennie Carignan. 

The navy has made a case publicly for replacing its four Victoria-class submarines and the Liberal government announced during the recent NATO Summit in Washington that it would proceed with the program.

The defence department was asked a series of questions about ships, planes and other pieces of equipment that are near the end of their service lives. It did not respond.

Eyre said the tough choices are not so much about budgets as they are about the age and survivability of the equipment.

"As a capability ages out, there's a declining pool of spare parts to be able to keep it going," he said. "Opening up assembly lines for some of these spare parts — if they're very small, if it's a fleet that is very small worldwide — may not make a lot of sense."

The recent federal budget set aside funding to maintain older warships, such as the navy's Halifax-class frigates. But Eyre said not all of the military's needs were covered and "there's a delta" between the upkeep required and the amount of cash available.

The aging-out crisis now gripping the military has been decades in the making and is the product of successive governments "not wanting to make the hard choices," said Christian Leuprecht, a professor at the Royal Military College of Canada.

He said the military and the government will have to take care in choosing which items of equipment to decommission and when.

"Our allies are seeing that Canada is effectively reducing capabilities because it simply doesn't have the money, the political will or the human resources to generate new capabilities — or to even sustain the capabilities Canada currently has," said Leuprecht. He added he believes the staffing crisis within the military is making the situation worse by leaving the CAF with fewer technicians to keep older aircraft and ships running.

There may be no better example of the federal government's reluctance to replace military equipment on a timely basis than the Snowbirds' Tutor jets, which were first ordered by the military in 1961.

The jets began their demonstration career in 1967. They adopted the name Snowbirds in 1971 and were formally designated as the airshow team in 1975.

The Tutors also served for decades as the air force's principal jet trainer before being retired from that task in the early 2000s. Of the 191 originally ordered, roughly 26 are thought to be in the air force inventory or in storage.

In 2003, the air force was urged in no uncertain terms to quickly replace the Tutors, which were considered well-maintained but ancient.

A study by the defence department's director of major service delivery procurement warned at the time that the aircraft's life expectancy would run to 2010 but could be extended for another decade if absolutely necessary.

Keeping the Tutor poses 'significant' risks, report warned

"With each passing year, the technical, safety and financial risk associated with extending the Tutor into its fifth decade and beyond will escalate," said the review, written in August 2003. "These risks are significant, however they are not easily quantified."

The Snowbirds kept flying, however.

A DND report from the fall of 2014 cleared the fleet as "technically airworthy" but noted "significant concerns, including some caused by financial restraints."

That same evaluation said the Tutors could have their lives extended to 2025.

"I want to maintain the Snowbirds. I just want to get them a better plane," said Blair, adding that he's asked the commander of the air force about the feasibility of using "existing fighter jets" to maintain an aerial demonstration team, as other allies do.

"I think that's something that I want to explore."

If Canada's NORAD and NATO commitments make that option impossible, he said, he wants to begin the search for a replacement for the Tutor as soon as possible.