Thank you, Mr. Chair, for giving us the opportunity to speak before this standing committee, and thank you to all the members.
I didn't prepare a speech, but I would like to address two programs where we consider governments can make some savings.
For people who are not familiar with EADS, we are a large company, a European company, where you will find Airbus, Eurocopter, Astrium, and Cassidian. It is a company that is making a turnover of 45 billion euros every year, and we are based in Canada, so we have 1,600 people working in addition to that.
Regarding the two programs that I would like to address, one of them is Mercury Global and the second one is the coast guard helicopter.
Mercury Global is a satellite communications program where the Canadian government is looking to have satellite communications capabilities for the Canadian Forces when they are operating in country and overseas. They are looking for satellite communications capabilities for a 15-year base. We consider that the direction the federal government is taking today is certainly not the right one, if you wanted to have a cost-effective solution and value for money for the taxpayer.
We have a large experience regarding satellite communications services worldwide. Particularly, we are providing such services to 14 NATO countries to date. We are operating overseas and also in countries. You have to bear in mind that in providing such services you need to give flexibility, because the demand for satellite communications capabilities is increasing and you need to have this flexibility in order to cope with it.
Today, DND foresees spending $550 million in the purchase of one satellite for the WGS constellation, which is the U.S. constellation, in order to be aboard to have satellite communications capabilities provided by the U.S. Today, if you look at all of the countries in the world, they are focusing more on going through commercial satellites to deal with their satellite communications capabilities. It's what Astrium, one of the divisions of EADS, is providing to these NATO countries.
Based on the requirements of the Canadian government and the Canadian Forces that they are foreseen to have within 15 years, we consider that you can make some savings. We have estimated, based on the worst-case scenario, that you will spend only $370 million for covering these satellite communications capabilities. And what we are providing for the Canadian government is pay as you go. This means that you don't have to pay up-front payments, which is the case for participating in the WGS constellation that has $550 million that has to be paid up front now.
We consider that the Canadian government can make some savings paying services on a 15-year basis with no up-front payment, and in the long term it will make a huge saving for you. So our recommendation regarding this program is to have a fair competition, to open the competition, and not to have a sole-source process toward the U.S. That's the first thing.
The second program is addressing the coast guard helicopter. This program is the replacement of the BO-105 helicopter, which is what the coast guard is operating today. We are considering helicopters that were manufactured 25 years ago. We consider it is time for the Canadian Coast Guard to change their helicopters in order to make some savings, because they are operating in very harsh conditions and the in-service supports will be very costly, and becoming costlier, for the Canadian government.
We are recommending, if this program is launched, to provide alternative service delivery, as we did for the...[Inaudible--Editor]...project. Going for ASD, you will drastically reduce your costs by reducing the number of public servants who will have to deal with the in-service support of the helicopters. That's the experience we have in some of our countries.
You have some experience in Canada with Top Aces, who today are operating helicopters and aircraft for the training services they are providing for the Canadian Forces.