Bombardier supports close to 50,000 jobs across the country.
Bombardier's success is made possible by a robust network of more than 1,550 Canadian suppliers from coast to coast, demonstrating that the company is at the heart of a thriving national ecosystem.
Our work not only fuels economic growth, but it also plays a vital role in reinforcing Canada's sovereignty through innovation. Our expertise in aviation is recognized around the world.
Our expertise in business aviation also allows us to contribute to airborne defence. An important pillar of our company is to leverage our portfolio of Challenger and Global aircraft with our unparalleled engineering, complex modification, certification and maintenance expertise to offer business jet-based solutions for defence missions. We have decades of experience in this space.
Bombardier is known to be a collaborative and flexible partner. We have built long-term partnerships with governments and militaries worldwide and joined forces with the world's most advanced mission system providers. Bombardier delivers multi-mission, long-range, high-performance aircraft platforms used for different types of solutions, including intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, airborne early warning, signals intelligence, electronic warfare, medical evacuation and more.
Bombardier business aircraft are chosen around the world for defence missions. Some examples include Germany with the PEGASUS program for signals intelligence, Sweden for multirole government transportation missions, the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force for HADES and BACN, and Switzerland for medical evacuation and government transportation.
We welcome the recent federal government announcement to invest in Canadian industry by favouring a solution based on the made-in-Canada Bombardier Global 6500 aircraft. We also congratulate Saab on being selected as the preferred supplier for Canada's airborne early warning and control fleet with its GlobalEye solution.
This announcement further highlights the versatility of the Bombardier Global 6500 aircraft, as well as its growing role in Canada. Last December, the federal government announced the purchase of six Global 6500s to enhance the RCAF's multi-mission air transport capability. This March, the National Research Council announced that it had acquired a Global 6500 aircraft for critical research and development activities.
Canada benefits from an exceptional aerospace innovation ecosystem built on the strength of its universities, research centres and technical institutions. Bombardier works closely with over 25 universities and technical schools across the country, including in Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador. We have research collaborations in place, as well as training arrangements with these universities, schools and colleges. Our internship program, for instance, has supported more than 9,000 internships over the past nine years.
Bombardier has taken part in several R and D projects through various programs and initiatives, such as INSAT, CARIC, TDP, Scale AI, NSERC and Mitacs. Research areas include aerodynamics, blended-wing body configuration, flight controls, cabin systems, predictive maintenance, fluid dynamics, wind tunnel testing and sustainable technologies.
We have also benefited from a strong and long-standing collaboration with the NRC—