U.S. analyst claims Canadian govt. estimates of F-35 fighter costs far too low

The costs of these F-35 jets has been a hot issue during this election campaign. Opposition parties have constantly criticised the Conservative government for cost estimates that are far below what the actual costs will be. The government so far simply stands by its estimates even though more and more sources say they are far too low.

The governments sets the cost of a jet at 75 million but according to a U.S. defence that is not near the actual cost.Winslow Wheeler, of the Centre for Defence Information in Washington, said at a press conference on Parliament Hill that "nobody on this earth" is going to end up paying $75 million per jet by the time the planes, currently in production, are fully tested and developed. The cost will be more in the neighbourhood of $148 million, he said. So the Conservative government estimate is actually about half the real cost if the analyst is correct.

The F-35 purchase will be the largest military procured in Canadian history. The Parliamentary Budget Officer has also given a higher estimate of the costs than the government. His figure is the same as Winslows. The Liberals would scrap the agreement to buy the planes if elected---which seems unlikely!

The analyst also said:"This airplane is nothing to write home about," He alsol said even if they do end up being "as advertised" when it's finally finished, the model is still "a gigantic performance disappointment.""You're getting an underperforming airplane for a huge amount of money,"

Canada is planning to buy 65 of the fighter jets made by Lockhee Martin through the Joint Strike Fighter project, a U.S.-led multinational purchase program that began in 1996.

Winslow worked for more than 30 years on Capitol Hill for Republican and Democrat senators and for the U.S. General Accounting Office. Harper has always defended the purchas and points out that the purchase will creaste jobs in Canada's aerospace industry. No doubt at huge expense to Canadian taxpayers. He says that the Liberal plane would mean a loss of 278 million already invested in the project.

The Conservatives also argue that the F-35 deal is bringing economic benefits to Canada's aerospace industry and the Liberal plan to back out of it would hurt the industry and mean that more than $278 million already invested in the project would be lost.

In the JSF program, partner countries are sharing the costs of developing, producing and buying the planes. Wheeler is a critic of the process, advocating instead for the "fly before you buy" approach. In the process used it seems not only do you buy a pig in a poke but you pay to produce the pig as well before you buy it. Before the plane is completed there could obviously be cost overruns and more problems.

Winslow thinks a competitive process is better:"Compete several procurement-ready prototypes and then make a decision. That's the way some of our most successful airplanes were done,". "You have plenty of time to do that, your CF-18s are going to be around for a few more years."

Wheeler suggest that Auditor General Sheila Fraser conduct an audit on the government's decision making on the F-35. "We do that routinely in the United States,"

Although Wheeler felt it was not his place to suggest what Canada would do he said:"As an American, this program should be terminated immediately. It's unaffordable and the performance is unacceptable already. We need to start over and form a competitive fly before you buy selection," The purchase reflects badly on Canadian priorities that we should make such a huge process when our health care system needs more funds and we could use plenty of work on our infrastructure.