Will Harper finally pull the plug on the F-35 purchase?

According to a December 6 article in the Ottawa Citizen, the Conservative government of Stephen Harper has finally decided to pull the plug on a planned purchase of 65 F-35 stealth fighter jets.

An audit, soon to be released by KPMG accountants, will push the projected life-cycle cost of each plane to well above $30 billion. Some even put the figure at close to $40 billion. NOTE: Actually it turns out to be around $45 billion according to the KPMG report. Faced with the huge increases in costs, the operations committee of the federal Cabinet decided to scrap the sole-source program and begin looking at other sources, claims the Ottawa Citizen, citing an anonymous source familiar with the decision.

The Prime Minister's Office denied a media report that the F-35 purchase was dead saying that the report was "inaccurate on a number of fronts". The statement also promised that the government would update the House of Commons on its seven point plan to replace the jets before the Xmas break. The government also claims that no decision has been made on buying the F-35 planes to replace Canada's aging CF-18 fighter jets.

Opposition members of parliament hammered the government on Friday, claiming that the government has consistently hidden the cost of the F-35 jets from the public. Interim Liberal leader Bob Rae said:

"I don't see how the minister of defence [Peter MacKay] can possibly continue in his job. He's basically been a sales spokesperson for Lockheed Martin, the manufacturers of the F-35, since he took office. He's denigrated and attacked every person in opposition, in the Liberal Party or elsewhere, who has ever raised concerns or questions about this."

Speaking in Toronto, Rae claimed that the government has constantly misled Canadians:

"The government has consistently misled Canadians about the true cost of this aircraft. They've misled Canadians about their degree of oversight and their readiness to deal with the situation."

The Harper government had already put its purchase plan in neutral, if not reverse. Last April, the Canadian Auditor General questioned the reliability of the military's figures on costs of the planes. The government then announced it would undertake an "options analysis" and would consider alternative fighter jets that might meet the military's needs. Prior to this, the government's argument was that only the F-35 could meet the military's needs and that was why there was no competitive bid! The KPMG audit was to be part of the review process.

Originally the cost of the entire project was announced by MacKay as being just $9 billion for the 65 planes. However, a report by the government's own budget office put the cost at $29.3 billion. The federal auditor general put the total cost to buy and maintain the planes at $25 billion. Questions about the F-35 during question period in parliament were not answered by MacKay but by others.

In response to a reporter MacKay said:

"What I can tell you is we're following the seven-point plan as we have been now for some months and into next week there will be an open and transparent discussion about the next steps that are going to follow in the CF-18 replacement."

MacKay and a transparent discussion, something straight out of Onion! In the interests of transparency no doubt, when asked whether the cost would be $40 billion, MacKay did not respond.

The New Democratic Party defence critic, Jack Harris said:

"The whole process is in a shambles, quite frankly. This is not good enough. We've got enough misleading information out there in front of the public.... They didn't do their due diligence, they didn't have an open, fair and transparent process. They've demonstrated their incompetence in a $40-billion-plus contract."

Harris pointed out that the Conservatives attacked anyone who questioned their figures, including their own parliamentary budget office Kevin Page. See the marvelous video with Kevin Page below.

Whenever the purchase plan and process were questioned, the government and military have constantly maintained that the F-35 was the only plane that would be suitable for Canada's needs. Many expect that the specifications were drawn up so that only the F-35 could meet them. Suddenly, all has changed. General Tom Lawson, chief of the defence staff told parliamentarians that there were other planes with stealth capabilities.

When Lockheed Martin was asked questions, the company said that they should be asked to the Canadian Department of National Defence but also said:

"Lockheed Martin has been a partner with the Canadian Forces for more than 50 years. We continue to look forward to supporting the Canadian government as they work to provide their air force fifth-generation capability for their future security needs,"

We can expect more fireworks in parliament when the KPMG audit is released and the government provides an update. Peter MacKay the defence minister has not offered to resign and no doubt won't, although it might be a nice Xmas present for many Canadians.

Canada: Feeding the military industrial complex through the JSF

   Back in 1996 the JSF Joint Strike Fighter program was begun. The program aims to replace aging existing planes with new advanced planes both in the U.S. and some allies. The program was supposed to make affordable planes by using 80 per cent of the parts of the three different models in common. But critics complain that not only is the plane not turning out to be cheap but is not even very functional. For example Winslow Wheeler an analyst for the Center for Defense Information in the U.S. says: "The history of multi-role fighters, even for single services, is terrible. They do nothing well. ... The F-35 never will be able to fulfil its mission, because it is too heavy to fight other aircraft in the air, but too fast, thin-skinned and lightly armed to support troops on the ground."
      Nevertheless nine countries signed on to the program. Canada is one of the participants. Others include the UK, Australia, Israel, and even Singapore. The U.S. will pay the bulk of development costs but Canada has invested 168 million. In all the nine partners are slated to buy about 3,100 planes over a total of 25 years.
   Canada is to buy 65 F 35A planes. The first delivery is not until 2016.  However the program has been beset by problems especially concerning costs for the planes and servicing. The cost estimates continually rise. In June 2010 the estimates were for 156 million per plane. This is already double the original estimates and likely to rise even further. In may of this year the U.S. General Accounting Office said: "After more than 9 years in development and 4 in production, the JSF program has not fully demonstrated that the aircraft design is stable, manufacturing processes are mature, and the system is reliable,"
   In Canada also cost estimates vary widely. The Canadian Dept. of National Defence estimated the total cost of its 65 planes at 17.6 billion. The Parliamentary Budget Officer however estimated the cost at 29.3 billion. The Budget Office reckons the cost of each plane at 148 million almost twice the cost estimate of the DND of 75 million.
   Many critics wonder whether Canada really needs these fighters costing billions of dollars when the government is strapped for cash and anxious to reduce the deficit. However the care and feeding of the global military industrial complex takes priority over such needs as repairing the social safety net and other social spending needs. For more see this article.