Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan made a major announcement today about Canada’s controversial fighter jet purchase.
The controversial plan by the previous government to replace Canada’s ageing fleet of CF-18 Hornets, with single source F-35’s appears now to have come to an end, at least for now.
The CF-18’s currently flying, were originally given a service life expectancy of 20 years, but are now as much as 35 years old. Of the original 138 jets, only 77 are left and only about half are airworthy at any given time.
Canada has an obligation to NORAD and also to NATO to have a specific number of airworthy fighters available at all times. Currently Canada cannot meet those obligations.
In its decision today, the government announced its intention to explore acquisition of 18 of the F-18 Super Hornets as an interim measure to bolster the fleet immediately and meet its military obligations to NORAD and NATO.
In making the announcement the government said it will be discussing with Boeing and the US government about buying the interim jets
“at a cost, time, level of capability and economic value that is acceptable to Canada”.
The interim measue will enable it to then conduct an “open and transparent competition” for replacement of the fleet.
The Liberal government of Justin Trudeau said it would not buy the F-35’s agreed to by the previous Conservative government, and had said this summer it would instead single source the Super Hornet for fleet replacement.
Faced with a storm of protest from opposition parties and industry, the Liberal government backed down.
With the announcement of an “open” bidding process, the F-35 would perhaps be back in the running.
Costs are a major question for any aircraft, and arriving at plausible figures seems difficult. Various countries have recently bought either the F-35 or Super Hornets, each time the costs per plane seem to be widely varied.
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