Ted Campbell discusses the need to replace the Royal Canadian Air Force long-haul VIP transport aircraft (the current CC-150 Polaris planes were built and first operated by Wardair in 1987 and obtained by the government in 1993). It’s traditional for the government to be assailed by the opposition and the media (at least when it’s a Conservative government in office) for wanting to spend far too many dollars for unnecessarily luxurious planes (Jean Chretien in opposition called the Polaris a “flying Taj Mahal”)*. The Polaris and its eventual replacement do a lot more than just fly junketing politicians around:
RCAF CC-150 Polaris at Zurich, Switzerland on 25 January, 2012.
Photo by Kambui via Wikimedia Commons
… let’s all remember please that the primary roles of this fleet of aircraft are to transport Canadian troops to wherever in the world they might need to go, for operations, and to refuel our jet fighters when they are deployed overseas, and to carry cargo, but smaller loads that do not require a big CC-130 Hercules or the mighty CC-177 Globemaster III. The Royal Canadian Air Force needs a fleet of specially modified aircraft for those roles. There are several more modern “tankers” available including the Boeing KC-46 which is used by the USA and Israel and the Airbus A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) which is used by several nations including Australia and the United Kingdom. […] Some commercial aircraft can be converted, easily and quickly, from carrying passengers in seats to carrying cargo in containers to carrying aircraft fuel in giant bladders with refuelling hoses attached. They are true multi-role aircraft. They can also be converted to VIP aircraft with special suites for sleeping, with showers, work spaces, secure telecommunications and regular conventional passenger seats for support staff and journalists.
The key bit of a real VIP aircraft is a secure (high-grade encryption) communications and information suite. The prime minister, ministers and senior officials, when en route to a meeting in a foreign capital may need to have discussions that are SECRET-CANADIAN EYES ONLY with senior staff back in Ottawa and they may then need to have a video conference call with, say, the Prime Ministers of e.g. Australia and the United Kingdom using a different security system that allows them to discuss SECRET-FIVE EYES ONLY materiel. You’re talking a reliable satellite communications system (with a back-up, too) and various cryptographic terminals and the people to operate and maintain them. The comm/IT suite is complex and expensive. Everything else is optional and, even in the case of a VIP shower stall, pretty cheap, too.
OK, I can already hear the objections, many from Conservatives: “Why doesn’t he fly commercial? He can even fly First Class,” some will say. Aside from some very real security concerns, suppose he has to attend a G-20 meeting in Brazil. There are no flights from Ottawa, there are no direct flights from Toronto. Even if there were he would need an entourage of security and telecommunications/cryptography specialists. I know the Pope charters an Alitalia jet when he travels but I’m afraid that even Air Canada, which has 400± aircraft and carries over 50,000,000 passengers a year, might find it too difficult to keep an aircraft on something close to “hot-standby,” as the RCAF does, for the prime minister. This problem was examined many times over the years and the range of factors ~ security, communications, availability ~ dictate that a dedicated VIP squadron in the Air Force is the best choice … maybe the only sensible choice.
* I rarely say much in favour of former PM Jean Chrétien, but in this particular case he was consistent in his opposition even after being elected: he refused to use the VIP transport during his time in office and attempted to find a buyer for that particular aircraft. Successor Paul Martin had no such aversion and used the aircraft during his premiership.
