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Airbus has promised to build a new training facility in Comox, BC for aircrews.

Sources say the aircraft from both competitors were compliant in the bidding process but that Airbus edged out Leonardo on price. Both firms had also promised a full package of industrial benefits for Canadian firms.

The Brazilian aerospace firm Embraer submitted a bid for its KC-390 aircraft but the plane only made its maiden flight in 2015 and it is not yet in full production.

Government planners hope to have a C-295 on hand at Trenton for the announcement.

The fixed-wing search and rescue aircraft deal is seen as a good news story and could provide a welcome diversion for the Liberals to shift attention away from their controversial sole-source purchase of Super Hornet fighter jets.

The RCAF expects all of the new search and rescue aircraft to be delivered by 2023.

The project originally envisioned acquiring 17 planes. But that has now changed and will be capability based, say government officials. The aerospace firms submitted in their bids the numbers of aircraft they believe are needed for Canada to handle the needed search and rescue capability.

The new search and rescue planes will replace the RCAF’s 40-year-old Buffalo aircraft and older model C-130s currently assigned to search-and-rescue duties.

The Buffalos, first purchased in 1967, are key to search and rescue on the West Coast and in parts of the Rockies. Those aircraft are already facing mechanical and technical problems and, several years ago, the air force had difficulty obtaining spare propellers.

RCAF commander Lt. Gen. Mike Hood recently told the Vancouver Sun that the national training facility for the new aircraft would be located in Comox, BC.

The training facility would include flight simulators to help pilots train.

During the interview Hood promoted the spinoff economic benefits to Comox of the new training facility and the additional personnel that would be based there.