Mr. Kellway (Beaches-East York, Ont.) and other critics said the reprimand from a powerful budget appropriations panel in the U.S. House of Representatives should make Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) take a serious look at “alternatives.”
Despite increasing U.S. Department of Defense requests for spending by a total of $5-billion on a range of other weapons and system procurements, and other defence areas, the House Appropriations Defense subcommittee recommended $528.5-million in procurement cuts for the F-35, Gannet Company’s DefenseNews.com reported.
The reduction would be a six per cent drop in the $8.9-billion U.S. Department of Defense request for funding in the 2013 fiscal year, including $5.2-billion for 25 F-35s.
Opposition MPs said the U.S. procurement costs for 2013 are an indication of how much the estimated costs for the sophisticated new fighter jets have risen since the Harper government announced in 2010 it intended to acquire 65 air force versions of the F-35 at an initial purchase price of $5.58-billion with an additional $2.98-billion for add-ons and weapons in Canada.
The U.S. budget committee cited “unjustified cost increases, engine cost growth and contractor delays” as it recommended the F-35 reductions, DefenseNews.com reported in an article about the internal committee report that was circulated widely among F-35 watchers in Canada on Wednesday.
“If they [the Conservative government] are determined to purchase the F-35, then our costs just went up,” Mr. Kellway told The Hill times. “The Americans are delaying procurement or cutting back on their own procurement, and that means our costs go up.” Mr. Kellway said this proves the “program is on thin ice” and at risk.
“The fundamental economic justification for this whole F-35 program is crumbling before our eyes,” he said.
Canada, the U.S. and seven other countries formed a consortium going back to 1997 to develop a new fighter airplane to replace a range of legacy warplanes whose lifespans were expected to end around 2020. Although none of the consortium partners are compelled to acquire the F-35, Canada and several others have made formal government decisions to take part, and the U.S. has been acquiring a limited number of the jets even as testing and development continues.
Canada’s controversial F-35 procurement is now on hold as the government recovers from a scathing criticism by Auditor General Michael Ferguson over the project’s management and procurement shortcuts.
Mr. Ferguson last month accused National Defence and the Cabinet of failing to disclose $10-billion worth of operating and sustainment costs in a March, 2011, report to Parliament. As well, Mr. Harper and other Conservatives referred only to the lower $14.7-billion purchase and lifetime cost during the campaign for the May 2 election.
Mr. Kellway said the Congressional F-35 reprimand—at the same time as the Defence subcommittee increased U.S. Navy spending by $562-million to add 11 F-18 Super Hornet fighter jets to the Navy’s procurement request—should help convince Mr. Harper’s government to suspend the F-35 project and hold a competition to select Canada’s CF-18 replacements. The CF-18 Super Hornet has been among the planes put forth as an alternative.
“All that goes to prove is that the foundations for this program are weak, and if the Americans are acknowledging that by making their own cuts again, and this isn’t the first time, they’ve had three cuts over the last three years, then this government better take seriously the opportunity of looking for alternatives,” Mr. Kellway said.
Liberal MP John McKay (Scarborough-Guildwood, Ont.) said though the amount of the recommended cut for U.S. F-35s is low compared to what the Department of Defense is spending for a total of 3,447 F-35s over the next 35 years, it is significant for Canada.
“The American cuts actually are significant, I think, not so much in the magnitude of the cuts, rather the signal that the cut communicates,” Mr. McKay said. “Will that have any penetration here? I doubt it, I don’t think anything has any penetration here.”
Allan Williams, a former assistant deputy minister for procurement at Canada’s Department of National Defence, who has become a vocal critic of the government’s decision to acquire the F-35 without competitive bids, said the U.S. spending reduction should not be a surprise, because the Department of Defense has sharply scaled back forecasts for production and procurement of the Lockheed Martin jet forecasts over the past two years.
“The fact that they’ve done this shouldn’t really surprise anybody,” Mr. Williams told The Hill Times. “If it does, then they’re not keeping posted with what’s happening with this business down in the States. For all these years now, everything has been moving to the right [to later targets for large scale production].”
The House of Representatives full Appropriations Committee is expected to vote on the entire budget bill this week.
Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: Tim Naumetz
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