Lockheed Martin announced the contract with Apex Industries of Moncton, N.B., on Monday, noting that more than 34 Canadian aerospace suppliers are contracted to supply parts for the F-35 production at Lockheed Martin and Canadian firms have won more than $500-million since Canadian participation in development of the fight jet began in 2002.
Canada is among eight countries that signed a 2006 memorandum of understanding with the U.S. to develop and purchase the F-35, but a Canadian opportunity to bid on up to $11-billion worth of sustainment for a fleet over 30 years depends on whether Canada goes ahead with an acquisition, currently on hold as part of the government’s response last year to a scathing report from Auditor General Michael Ferguson.
But Keith Parlee, chief operating officer of Apex Industries, told The Hill Times on Monday the Apex contract to Lockheed Martin is limited to three years, and Apex would not discuss value if the contract because of the extent production will depend on the rate of F-35 production.
Canada was scheduled to begin taking steps next year for the delivery of the first lot of four F-35 airplanes in 2017, but a recent Department of National Defence report to Parliament on the project in effect raised the possibility of a delay of at least one year, by including an estimate that a one-year delay would add $430-million to the current total estimated acquisition cost of $9-billion.
The government put the F-35 project on hold in response to Mr. Ferguson’s report, froze the entire acquisition budget at $9-billion and this summer received final reports from four aircraft manufacturers, including Lockheed Martin, on proposed costs and industrial benefits for Canada through acquisition of their fighter jets to replace Canada’s remaining fleet of 77 Boeing CF-18s.
An independent review of the report to Parliament by National Defence revealed even though Lockheed Martin was scheduled to begin delivering F-35s to Canada in 2017, the Canadian fleet’s Initial Operational Capability would not be until 2021.
“We’re using three years, but the build rates do impact volume size, the dollar amount and the length, but for this initial contract, it’s about three years and obviously the big thing for us is that it opens the door to another original equipment manufacturer,” Mr. Parlee told The Hill Times in an interview.
“We typically talk about doing business with Bell Helicopter and Boeing and Bombardier, and now we can add Lockheed Martin to that list and that’s [the] challenge for [small to medium businesses] in Canada today, is to continue to open those doors with these larger firms and that’s why we’re quite pleased to have this contract,” said Mr. Parlee, declining to provide a dollar figure for the value of the contract.
Under the contract, Apex will supply Lockheed Martin with metallic components for the forward fuselage and wing of the F-35 airframe. Lockheed Martin described the agreements as a “multi-year” contract.
“We have rough amounts that we could say, but we don’t typically do that only because the lengths and the build rates do impact the dollar amount. It’s significant to us, it’s not the largest contract we’ve ever signed, but it’s significant,” said Mr. Parlee.
Original Article
Source: hilltimes.com
Author: TIM NAUMETZ
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