This will be the final season the Royal Canadian Air Force’s Snowbirds fly jet aircraft, and it will be early in the 2030s before they reappear in their new mounts, a Canadian version of the Pilatus PC-21 nicknamed the CT-157 Siskin II. At a news conference in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, on Tuesday, Defence Minister David McGuinty confirmed earlier reports that the CT-114 Tutors will be grounded after the team’s final 2026 show in Sacramento, California, Oct. 10-11. Like the Tutor, the Siskin will be the RCAF’s primary training aircraft, and the pause for the Snowbirds is to allow the RCAF to acquire enough airframes to supply the 431 Air Demonstration team. The Air Force recently took its first Siskin from the Swiss manufacturer.
The Tutor, designed and built by Canadair, the predecessor of Bombardier and now De Havilland Canada, first flew in 1963 and was the RCAF’s primary trainer from 1966 to 2000. When they were retired, the RCAF put more than 100 airworthy aircraft in storage and has been using those airframes to keep the Snowbirds flying. The Snowbirds aircraft just underwent a $30 million upgrade that included glass panels and the plan was to keep them flying until at least 2030. It has not been disclosed whether the planes will be scrapped or sold off. For the final season of the Tutors, most of the team’s appearances are in Canada, but they will also fly a July 4 show over New York City to mark the U.S.’s 250th anniversary and have dates in Jones Beach, New York (July 5-6), Columbus, Ohio (July 20-21) and Huntington Beach, California (Oct. 2-4), and the final show in Sacramento.
What a joy. Maybe we could save some more money flying 1/3 size drones with a couple of late teenagers controlling them. BTW, let’s just trash our old F18’s and wait for the new miracle machines to arrive. How about re-enginening our fleet of mothballed DeHavilland Chipmunks and saving the GST costs with imports? As the world’s 28th military superpower that should declare to everyone we are a serious force to be reckoned with.
An absolute joy. The Pilatus PC-21 is a nice bird. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m drawn to the COIN size/role aircraft.
I can go to just about any military airshow and see and F-18 demo, but the Siskin would be a real treat.
Not for too much longer…F/A-18’s aren’t long for this world either. I remember going to air shows and seeing over a dozen different tactical jet types…F-4’s in multiple variants, F-14, 15, 16, and 18’s, F-111, A-7, A-6, A-4 and even the A-3/B-66…S-3, EA-6B, P-3…and then the big B’s and the C’s and the various T’s…so many different types in the inventory…glory days
So sad. Canada is becoming a 3 world country faster than you can image. They spent 30 million on upgrades of 10 simple jets and now they park them. We need a big change in government to break this decline. Canada with oil, mineral’s, farms can’t even keep 10 simple jets flying.
Truth.
One solution for Canada & America:
Yeet the Jeet
Very sad Harvey 😏
Just a great liberal joke on the taxpayers. Anyone betting that gifts to liberal friends in third world countries will increase?
So much for dreams of flying in the military.
Sad doesn’t begin to describe the situation, it’s a disgrace. Spend 30 million in upgrades and then scrap them, makes fiscal sense to me. Get rid of Canadian built jets to purchase Swiss built turbo props. I thought we were building Canadian pride. To save money and get more officers on the front lines I expect an announcement that the RCMP musical ride will also be shut down. Elbows up everyone, what a joke.
Sad, but there’s little choice for the RCAF. The issues of operating and maintaining a small group of planes for many decades after all others of the type were retired are nearly insurmountable. The Blues and T-birds went through this back in the late 60’s when they retired the Tigers and Huns that were the last of their kind and they loved so much in favor of the F-4’s which the services were actively operating. The Blues had to do this again in 1986 when their A-4’s were operating long after even the Naval Air Reserve had retired theirs in favor of operational F-18’s.
While it would be nice if the Canadians could afford to dedicate a dozen F-18’s or F-35’s to the Snowbirds, that would be way too big a chunk of their operational TACAIR force to be reasonable. For example, the Blues’ dozen or so F-18’s come from a fleet of over 700 in the USN/USMC inventory, while the Canadians have less than 90 Hornets and are only getting about the same number of Lightnings to replace them.
When you only have 10 flying airframes it’s pretty hard to make a “team”
Excellent decision, glad to hear they are bringing the team into the future. I wonder if the naysayers complained this much when they stopped flying Sabres and switched to the Tutors?
Although, it seems even their graphics department can’t decide what colour the spinner is or the top of the cowl in front of the canopy. In the two views on the left they are white, in the two views on the right they are red. 🙂
The decision to refit the Snowbirds with turboprops has been, and will be, well litigated.
What is puzzling me is that they just spent $30 million to upgrade the Tutors on the premise that this upgrade would carry them to 2030 when they would receive new planes. Now, an announcement that they will cease ops after this season until 2030? What changed?
Russ maybe you can dig deeper and help us understand the circumstances?
May want a painter to sort out the paint scheme between now and 2030…color discontinuities depending on view (red, white, black) on upper fus, gear doors, leading edges, spinner.
The real issue is deployable assets vs show, current balance seems like putting a $30k paintjob on a bent C172. The promise of future deployable tactical acft can’t be wrapped in future fairytale budgets.
Honestly what a joke. Who here believes that after mothballing a team for FOUR YEARS it will rise from the ashes again.
The canadian government and it’s lackluster obsolete military are nothing but an international joke.
Doesn’t leave much to be proud of as a young canadian. No need to aspire to be a military officer and or a pilot in that rag tag joke of an armed force
How do you figure the F-35 is “obsolete”? And while my experience with the RCAF is rather dated, I found them to be a highly professional and competent group of people when I worked with them in NATO during the Cold War.