Canadian Warplanes 6: Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet

Canadian Warplanes, Jets,

Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet

The Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet is a light attack jet and advanced jet trainer co-manufactured by Dassault Aviation of France and Dornier Flugzeugwerke of Germany. It was developed specifically to perform trainer and light attack missions, as well as to perform these duties more ideally than the first generation of jet trainers that preceded it.

Both the French and German air forces procured the Alpha Jet in large numbers, the former principally as a trainer aircraft and the latter choosing to use it as a light attack platform. As a result of post-Cold War military cutbacks, Germany elected to retire its own fleet of Alpha Jets in the 1990s and has re-sold many of these aircraft to both military and civilian operators. The Alpha Jet has been adopted by a number of air forces across the world and has also seen active combat use by some of these operators.

The Alpha Jet is flown in Canada by Top Aces, a civilian company based in Montreal and operated by the Canadian Air Combat and Electronic Warfare Support Services Company as well as No. 414 Squadron, RCAF.

Top Aces Inc. (Top Aces), is a Montreal, Quebec-based defence contractor that offers contracted airborne training services to the CF through the Contracted Airborne Training Services (CATS) program. Top Aces operates a fleet of modernized fighter aircraft to provide Red Air threat replication, Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC) training, practice munitions drop, air-to-air gunnery training and naval target tow profiles for the Canadian and German militaries. It also provides electronic warfare training and tactics development, and supports advanced radar trials in nationally controlled environments. All Electronic Warfare Officers and EW role equipment are provided by the 414 Electronic Warfare Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) as part of the CATS contract.

CF personnel are authorized to fly on board Top Aces fighter aircraft.

Top Aces was founded in 2000 by three former RCAF CF-188 fighter pilots.

Some Alpha Jets retained the German Air Force paint schemes, but others have been repainted in aggressor camouflage colors that mimic certain foreign aircraft. Small low visibility Canadian flags have been added to the vertical tail stabilizers of aircraft contracted to the Royal Canadian Air Force. As of Nov 2019, the fleet was comprised of 31 aircraft including twenty Alpha Jets, seven Douglas A4N Skyhawks, two Learjet 35As,and two IAI Westwinds. In Nov 2020, it was reported that Top Aces was in negotiations with the Israeli Ministry of Defence for the purchase of 29 early model F-16s with a cost-per unit price of $3-4 million