Canada could pay more than $100 million for each of the first few F-35 fighter jets it’s scheduled to receive in 2017.
According to documents tabled in the U.S. Congress, Canada will pay around $90 million each for the first few jets that are delivered — should it sign a contract in 2013. However, that number is understood to possibly be closer to $104 million for each plane.
According to the Joint Strike Fighter program’s Selected Acquisition Report (SAR) tabled in Congress on Thursday, the overall cost of the F-35 rose again in the last year. Aviation Week reported Friday the new SAR shows the cost of the F-35 “is inching higher, rising 4.3 per cent to $395.7 billion in the last year.”
The document tabled Thursday and obtained by iPolitics, outlines the actual and predicted quantity of planes being produced by the program. Should Canada sign a contract next year as has been planned, it would have delivery of its first jets sometime in 2017. The SAR shows the price of an F-35 at that point would be roughly $91 million — a figure that includes the engine.
However, iPolitics understands that the Unit Recurring Flyaway Cost — the cost for the airframe, engines, avionics and other equipment that come standard with every airplane — of the Canadian F-35s delivered in 2017 will actually be around $104 million per unit. That cost would likely drop in the subsequent years toward 2023, as production numbers of the planes rises.
This would ultimately mean the average cost per plane over the entire span of Canada’s purchase window (from 2017 to 2023) would likely be in the mid-to-high $80-million range.
The tabling of the SAR comes on the heels of another report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office that shows the total acquisition cost of Joint Strike Fighter program — under which the F-35 is being developed — has jumped 52.8 per cent from the original full-cost estimate.
Earlier in March, the GAO outlined continual problems with the JSF program. In its report, the GAO also spoke to the U.S. government’s recent plan to slow production on the latest stage of production models, delaying purchase of 179 planes over the next five years.
“Slowing down procurement planes reduces concurrency risks to a degree, but overall program affordability — both in terms of the investment costs to acquire the JSF and the continuing costs to operate and maintain it over the life-cycle — remains a major risk,” the GAO said. “The long-stated intent that the JSF program would deliver an affordable, highly common fifth generation aircraft that could be acquired in large numbers could be in question.”
Canada’s auditor general is set to release a report April 3 that will evaluate the nation’s procurement process for the jet fighters. According to reports, it is expected the audit will reprimand both national defence and public works with what has been described as scathing language.
Original Article
Source: ipolitics
Author: Colin Horgan
According to documents tabled in the U.S. Congress, Canada will pay around $90 million each for the first few jets that are delivered — should it sign a contract in 2013. However, that number is understood to possibly be closer to $104 million for each plane.
According to the Joint Strike Fighter program’s Selected Acquisition Report (SAR) tabled in Congress on Thursday, the overall cost of the F-35 rose again in the last year. Aviation Week reported Friday the new SAR shows the cost of the F-35 “is inching higher, rising 4.3 per cent to $395.7 billion in the last year.”
The document tabled Thursday and obtained by iPolitics, outlines the actual and predicted quantity of planes being produced by the program. Should Canada sign a contract next year as has been planned, it would have delivery of its first jets sometime in 2017. The SAR shows the price of an F-35 at that point would be roughly $91 million — a figure that includes the engine.
However, iPolitics understands that the Unit Recurring Flyaway Cost — the cost for the airframe, engines, avionics and other equipment that come standard with every airplane — of the Canadian F-35s delivered in 2017 will actually be around $104 million per unit. That cost would likely drop in the subsequent years toward 2023, as production numbers of the planes rises.
This would ultimately mean the average cost per plane over the entire span of Canada’s purchase window (from 2017 to 2023) would likely be in the mid-to-high $80-million range.
The tabling of the SAR comes on the heels of another report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office that shows the total acquisition cost of Joint Strike Fighter program — under which the F-35 is being developed — has jumped 52.8 per cent from the original full-cost estimate.
Earlier in March, the GAO outlined continual problems with the JSF program. In its report, the GAO also spoke to the U.S. government’s recent plan to slow production on the latest stage of production models, delaying purchase of 179 planes over the next five years.
“Slowing down procurement planes reduces concurrency risks to a degree, but overall program affordability — both in terms of the investment costs to acquire the JSF and the continuing costs to operate and maintain it over the life-cycle — remains a major risk,” the GAO said. “The long-stated intent that the JSF program would deliver an affordable, highly common fifth generation aircraft that could be acquired in large numbers could be in question.”
Canada’s auditor general is set to release a report April 3 that will evaluate the nation’s procurement process for the jet fighters. According to reports, it is expected the audit will reprimand both national defence and public works with what has been described as scathing language.
Original Article
Source: ipolitics
Author: Colin Horgan
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