Top Aces Canadians ready to train French military aviation

Top Aces are recruiting! Nothing new for the Canadian ESSD (security and defense services company). But this time, this company specializing in aerial training is recruiting one program manager to Top Aces France (see recruitment sheet)! Its mission: to monitor its operations in France and especially within the framework of the REDAIR (or ADAIR) program for air and space weapons. In fact, AAE wants to outsource the simulation of an air opposition force to a private service provider as part of a contract that will cover 3,000 flight hours annually for a period of at least six years. In October 2023, Air and Space Chief of Staff General Mille highlighted the limited Mirage and Rafale fleet, explaining: We prefer to focus on the core of the mission .

Ready for 2026

Does this mean that Top Aces won the famous AAE tender to allow private air chest protectors for training missions? Didier Toussaint, co-founder of ESSD and president of the Top Aces Inc. group, wants to. But the answers to the French tender were only given on September 8: We are now waiting to present our project together with our partners and to enter into negotiations. We are ready to begin the impending transition period and full service no later than January 1, 2026 .

But the various competitors in this unprecedented market for outsourced services did not wait to refine their offerings and praise their qualities.

Thus Top Aces, created in 2000 by three former military pilots, highlighted 20 years of experience. Its first contract is from 2005 in favor of the Canadian Air Force with four Alphajet purchased in Germany. Growth came later, around 2010 says Didier Toussaint. Thanks to contracts with the American Air Force in the United States and Europe, another with the Bundeswehr since 2014, a contract within the framework of the training of Ukrainian pilots, which Didier Toussaint says he is very proud to support the goals of Canada, France and their NATO allies .

Top Aces also means 130,000 accident-free flight hours for a fleet of more than 100 aircraft: About sixtyAlphajetabout thirty F-16about twenty Skyhawk modernized… to which are added the planes from Blue Air Training, the American company that Top Aces took control of in 2022.

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Speaking of a company, let’s add Top Aces France, a company under French law created on March 1, 2024. And let’s not forget the French partner, SDTS, also specialized in operational air training, especially for the benefit of the national fleet .

Conversely, the competition (Draken, ATAC, TACAIR, etc.) also makes the reactors scream. A group of companies led by ATAC, an American ESSD, therefore proposes to deploy Mirage F1 purchased in 2017 from the French Air Force and transferred to the United States, where they face, like them F-16 of Top Aces, the F-18, F-22 And F-35 of the US Air Force and the US Navy!

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Nothing to worry about Didier Toussaint. He emphasizes an unblemished safety record an already documented presence in Europe and airworthiness certificates allowing its aircraft to be operated there under commercial licence. Without forgetting the difficulty for the competitors to meet the challenges of Top Aces and its technological capabilities, such as the Advanced Aggressor Mission System (AAMS) a suite of sensors which make it possible to simulate very varied operating scenarios and which equip F-16 And Skyhawk of society.

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If the Canadian company, which has ambitions in Italy and the UK, were to win the French market, it could implement Skyhawk modernized, piloted and maintained mainly by ex-fighter pilots and ex-maintainers of the AAE and the national fleet. The Cazaux air base, in turn, could act as a main platform, as could the German base at Nordholz, which hosts aggressors from Top Aces. Unless SDTS opens its Nîmes-Garons infrastructure to Top Aces France.