brother, can you spare a dime ? - KuschI'm inclined to agree more with your take on this. Bombardier probably felt it had to respond to the G650 - if only to let customers know there's something better in the works if they don't mind waiting.
Interestingly Gulfstream's 650 and C Series each sell for around $60- million apiece. Although one is a luxury business jet and the other a commercial jet there are some interesting comparisons and contrasts.
The G650 was deveoped in secret over a three year period. Bombardier probably knew Gulfstream, it's nemisis in the large business jet segment, was working on something because there were rumors in the media, but its hands were probably tied by the huge committment of resources to CSeries.
At first glance it might seem a new business jet might have been a better choice for Bombardier since the G650 has sold more than 200 orders and has a lot of optional orders, compared to C Series' with just under half that in firm orders. However, the G650 is closer to production so it isn't easy to make direct comparisons.
Another question that pops up out of this for me when discussing General Dynamics, is what keeps Gulfstream from entering the commercial jet space, or even military aircraft - something that might seem an obvious evolution for that company.
I'd be interested in hearing speculation on that from anyone who may have given it some thought.