As a result, officials were preparing to ask the Conservative government for more money to again extend the lives of some of the CF-18s — which have already undergone a $1.8-billion overhaul — until the last of the F-35s could come online.
“The planned CF-18 estimated life expectancy is currently 2020,” reads one email dated Sept. 21, 2011, and obtained by Postmedia News through access to information laws.
“However, the current Next Generation Fighter Capability project scheduled is based on the last of Canada’s F-35s being delivered in 2022 or 2023. CF-18 estimated life expectancy requirements are currently being assessed and a request for an extension will be made once the required date is confirmed.”
The revelation flies in the face of constant assertions that a stopgap would not be required between the retirement of the CF-18s and final delivery of the F-35s.
“Right now, our transition plan allows for that transition between the operational (CF-18) fleet as it ages out and the new (F-35) fleet as it comes online,” Royal Canadian Air Force commander Lt.-Gen. Andre Deschamps told a parliamentary committee on Dec. 11.
“The intention is to overlap between the two.”
It also comes after the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the equivalent of Canada’s auditor general, warned on June 14 that allies are increasingly delaying their plans to purchase F-35s, and testing of the stealth fighter is behind schedule.
Both issues have consequences for Canada as the government’s plan to purchase 65 F-35s requires doing so when full production is already underway.
Defence Department officials did not respond to questions by press time Friday.
Canada’s fleet of CF-18s were initially set to be retired in 2002, but a decade-long, $1.8-billion upgrade extended the life of 80 of the aircraft to between 2017 and 2020. (Three of the aircraft have since been lost.)
Further life extensions have been regarded as prohibitively expensive.
“Canada is now spending considerably more money on the CF-18 when it is deployed than when it was new,” Major Ed Roberds, an air weapons control at 1 Canadian Air Division Headquarters, wrote in the Canadian Military Journal in 2008.
“As the airframe gets older, more repairs are required, and our operational tempo requires a substantial increase in spare parts that must be transported to theatre when the aircraft are deployed.”
NDP military procurement critic Matthew Kellway said structural concerns also pose a potential threat to any pilot who must operate the CF-18s past even the outer edge of their lifespans.
“I wonder whether these guys are ready to play a very dangerous game to try to somehow extend the lives of the CF-18s,” he said of Defence Department officials.
Previous internal documents have shown the Conservative government was concerned last year about the rising costs of the F-35 program even as it was reassuring Canadians the program was on track and on schedule.
Kellway said the new email about the CF-18s again shows the government and Defence Department have not been playing straight with the public about the stealth fighter.
“The suggestion in the email that they may have to extend the life of the CF-18s clearly does suggest there are concerns the government has harboured about putting a fleet of F-35s in the air in time,” he said.
“Like so many of these issues, the government has put itself in a corner by not acknowledging the concerns publicly.”
Meanwhile, concerns are mounting about the government’s plan to pay an outside accounting firm up to $5 million to “assess the appropriateness” of the way in which the Defence Department has calculated how much the F-35s will cost.
Whatever firm wins the contract will not be allowed to question the figures presented, but rather will be called upon to judge whether the Defence Department followed correct procedures in determining how the cost estimates were arrived at.
The government says the external assessment will ensure proper procedures were followed, but Liberal defence critic John McKay alleged the government and National Defence are simply trying to set up a whitewash.
“These guys have suffered a huge blow to their credibility on the specific aspect on the F-35,” he said.
“They’re setting up a scenario where they can legitimately stand up in question period and say, ‘Well look, KPMG says we can do this all the time, so we didn’t mislead you in the first place.’”
Original Article
Source: ottawa citizen
Author: Lee Berthiaume
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