Time for Trudeau to offer straight talk on crooked F-35 procurement

Like a bad penny, the F-35 just keeps turning up in Canadian media.

A more fitting place would be in our history books, as a cautionary tale of how not to break the bank on a white elephant while torching one’s credibility.

This is an issue in which Justin Trudeau either earns his wings as a new type of politician, or he ditches in the same sea of double-talk that swallowed up his predecessors. Either his government is running the show, or bureaucrats over at Industry Canada are – the ones who are still dazzled by the lure of industrial benefits for the Canadian aerospace industry if Canada only sticks with the F-35.
These Harper era worthies seem to have forgotten that pilots fly airplanes, not industrial benefits. If Canadians ever see Trudeau or his defence minister posing in the cockpit of this stealthy lemon, with one engine, one seat, and no known price-tag, a la Peter MacKay, it will be time to move to Iceland.

Which is just to say that there is not much wiggle room here for the new government. Trudeau made clear on the campaign trail – crystal clear, that a Canada run by him would not be buying the F-35. Too expensive, too unreliable, and far too much political chicanery applied to the “acquisition” by the Harper Conservatives.

It was, of course, not an acquisition at all, just a five-alarm scandal. The former PM, his various defense ministers, and a bevy of Conservative MPs lied their way into oblivion on this disgraceful file. Remember Harper’s quotes about a “contract” for the F-35 when there wasn’t one? Remember Julian Fantino and Chris Alexander breaking the Baloney Barrier with their inflated claims about this over-rated golden goose of the defense contractor community?

But since then, the Trudeau government has gone wobbly on its commitment to buy a better, cheaper fighter jet to replace the CF-18 and invest any savings in naval vessels. Both his defense minister, Harjit Sajjan, and his minister of public services and procurement, Judy Foote, have refused to rule out the F-35 as part of the review looking into which jet Canada should purchase. Call that what you like, but it is hardly keeping the promise their leader so unequivocally made to Canadians when applying for the country’s top job.

When the only way to get the largest military procurement in history through the system was to eliminate competition and lie big about the cost, as Harper did, you know that there is something rotten in cabinet and at HQ. This fifth-generation fighter may be invisible to radar, but it’s not nearly as stealthy as the forces determined to buy this boondoggle with wings.

Lest we forget, the boys with stars on their shoulders had decided to buy the F-35 four years before the specs were even written for the acquisition. The fact that the sales pitch is still being made is remarkable in itself, given what is known about the F-35 program – the dishonesty and deception at the highest levels.

Despite all the public relations that tax dollars can buy, the Pentagon doesn’t even know if the $100-million planes are fit for combat. In the United States, the F-35 program was supposed to deliver 1,013 aircraft by fiscal 2016; it has delivered 179. Since the project began in 2003, the cost of the aircraft has doubled. According to the Government Budget Office in Washington, it costs $30,000 an hour to fly. The last F-35 is now scheduled to be delivered in 2040 — fifth generation jets produced at horse and buggy speeds.

Nor should anyone forget how this budget-breaking aircraft was born. The Pentagon and Lockheed-Martin actually put the F-35 into production years before the first test flight. Who would put an aircraft — or a mousetrap for that matter— on the assembly line before knowing if it worked? A defence contractor perchance?

After all, producing before testing meant that expensive refits had to be made every time defects were found in the aircraft. And that has happened a lot, since the design tools for the F-35 were deeply flawed. Making matters worse, there were also three variants of the aircraft — one for the Air Force, one for the Navy, and one for the Marines. Lots of room for refits there. Plus various parts of the F-35 were made in different countries, a ploy used as a sales pitch. No wonder back in 2012, the Pentagon’s Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, Frank Kendall, called producing the F-35 before testing it “acquisition malfeasance.”

Consider the opinion of that well-known peacenik John McCain about the F-35 program. If anyone should have been an advocate for this futuristic weapon it should have been McCain. Instead, America’s most famous pilot-cum-POW and the Republican senator from Arizona, excoriated the F-35 last week at a meeting of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He said he could not “fathom” how the delivery schedule of the F-35 made any strategic sense. He added that the history of the F-35, “has been both a scandal and a tragedy with respect to cost, schedule and performance.”

McCain was talking about history, but the scandal surrounding the F-35 is ongoing. Five of six F-35s were recently unable to take off from Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho. After 15 years of “development” and billions of dollars of investment, the planes could not boot up their proprietary software to get airborne — a story first reported in Flight Global and picked up by the Daily Mail.

How bad have things become? Pretty bad.

The House Armed Services Committee has even asked military leaders if it would be possible to re-start the ruinous F-22 Raptor program — also a Lockheed fighter — which had been shut down five years ago for gross cost overruns and unreliability. The politicians wanted to know what it would require to build 194 new Raptors to “finally meet the Air Force’s long-stated requirement of reaching 381 of the jets.” The request was described as an attempt to “side-step” mounting problems with the F-35’s electronic “brain” that could see the entire fleet grounded.

Predictably, the U.S. Air Force had an answer. Unfortunately, it was more public relations. A leaked media script showed that the Air Force was supplying its pilots with political-style talking points to be used to praise the F-35. You know, the kind Stephen Harper handed out when he couldn’t find real facts to support his arguments.

It remains to be seen if these “Public Affairs Guidance” notes will be able to counter an earlier leaked memo written by an F-35 pilot in his own words. In that memo, reported by Fortune Magazine, the pilot described how the F-35 was bested by a 40-year-old F-16 in mock air-to-air dogfights over the Pacific Ocean in 2015.

Justin Trudeau should deal with this issue as the crow flies — in a straight line between his election promise and Canada’s eventual decision on which fighter will be chosen to replace the CF-18.

If the government’s pledge to make fact-based decisions is for real, it’s hard to imagine how that could be the F-35.

Original Article
Source: ipolitics.ca/
Author:  Michael Harris

Liberals, Federal Officials Sing From Different Songbook On F-35s

OTTAWA — The Trudeau Liberals may have promised to exclude the F-35 from the competition to replace the air force's aging CF-18 jet fighters, but federal officials meeting the day after last fall's election were singing a completely different tune, documents reveal.

The records, obtained by The Canadian Press, show top Industry Canada bureaucrats met on Oct. 20 and discussed what advice to give the incoming government about the controversial procurement, emphasizing the decision should be based on requirement, not politics.

The F/A-18E Super Hornet Is What Canada Needs

Does Canada need a fifth-generation stealth multirole fighter? I don't think so.

As a matter of fact, beside the F-35 fiasco in general, Canada cannot afford such an expensive plane that had limited capabilities. A project worth more than $8 billion at the start, many experts now evaluate it at more than $49 billion. This might include all acquisition, sustainment and operating costs but does not guarantee the price won't go up again due other issues with the aircraft.

The stench of Harper’s zombies is becoming overpowering

Stephen Harper legislative monstrosities keep popping out of the ground like corpses in a zombie movie.

Harper invented the “future appointments” system as a way of governing for years beyond his mandate, tying the new government’s hands on the leadership of agencies like the National Energy Board. He and ministers like Lisa Raitt did it by “filling the pipeline” with Tory candidates for posts long before their existing appointments ran out.

Why the Liberals say one thing and do another. Blame it on ‘cognitive dissonance’

If you missed it — perhaps you were shovelling the walk, or in the bath — the latest Liberal broken promise has arrived. This time the issue is the F-35 fighter jet. You may recall the Liberals vowed during the last election campaign to scrap the previous government’s controversial purchase, and start the process of finding a replacement for our aging CF-18s all over again.

Not only would the contract be put out to competitive tender, but the F-35 would be excluded from consideration — an important point of distinction with both the Conservatives, who seemed inclined to stick with the F-35, and the NDP, who favoured an open bidding process.

F-35 jet back on Ottawa’s radar screen

OTTAWA—It’s controversial, costly and apparently back on Ottawa’s radar as a possible pick for Canada’s air force.

After ruling out the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jet last fall as a possible replacement for the aging CF-18s, the Liberals now appear to be leaving the door open after all.

Speaking at a defence conference in Ottawa Thursday, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan was asked pointblank whether the F-35 would be considered in the competition to replace the current fleet of fighters.

Pentagon official casts more doubt on Harper’s dire F-35 industry warning

OTTAWA — More questions have been raised about how much the Canadian aerospace industry would suffer if a future government drops out of the oft-maligned F-35 stealth fighter program.

The Pentagon's top acquisition official says the Canadian supply base is an essential part of the program and will remain as such, even if the country does not buy the aircraft.

Harper's Claim F-35 Cancellation Will 'Crater' Aerospace Industry 'A Lot Of Baloney'

OTTAWA — "He's not giving shipbuilding anything; he's merely talking about cratering our aerospace industry, which is, as I say, bad policy.... I don't understand where they're going with this." — Conservative Leader Stephen Harper on Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau's promise to scrap the F-35 stealth fighter program and channel the savings into naval shipbuilding.

Baloney Meter: Will cancelling F-35 ‘crater’ the Canadian aerospace industry?

OTTAWA — "He's not giving shipbuilding anything; he's merely talking about cratering our aerospace industry, which is, as I say, bad policy.... I don't understand where they're going with this." — Conservative Leader Stephen Harper on Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau's promise to scrap the F-35 stealth fighter program and channel the savings into naval shipbuilding.

___

One of the cornerstones of the Liberal defence policy is to formally opt out of the Conservative government's plan to acquire 65 F-35 stealth fighter jets to replace the Air Force's aging fleet of 1980s vintage CF-18s.

F-35 committee probe stalled, shutting down soon?

Opposition MPs are asking whether the government has something to hide, after a Conservative motion to wrap up the public accounts committee's investigation into the controversial F-35 fighter jets purchase.

The motion, introduced during a closed-door meeting of the Commons public accounts committee, would ensure the committee proceeded to write its report without hearing from any more witnesses.

Justin Trudeau vows to scrap F-35 fighter jet program

The Liberal Party will scrap the Conservatives' troubled F-35 fighter jet program should they assume government, Leader Justin Trudeau announced in Halifax today.

"Our Canadian Forces are in a state of stagnation," Trudeau said to a crowd of supporters at Pier 21 in Halifax, home to the Canadian Museum of Immigration.

The F-35 is now unaffordable thanks to the low Canadian dollar

The Royal Canadian Air Force’s (RCAF) hoped-for-purchase of F-35 fighter jets has hit another obstacle, in the form of a Canadian dollar that has dropped 25 per cent against its U.S. counterpart since 2013. Another, less expensive, non-developmental plane will now need to be chosen to replace the three decade-old CF-18s.

The cost of the F-35 first became an issue in 2010 when the Harper government announced it would acquire 65 of the planes for $9 billion, with a total project cost of $16 billion. The Canadian dollar was then at US$0.96.

Leaked dogfight test reveals that F-35 jet is in 'very big trouble'

It's the most expensive weapon ever built in human history. But after decades of internationally-funded research and development at an estimated cost of a trillion dollars, a leaked report from a mock combat test reveals that the F-35 is terrible at air-to-air combat.

"[The report found that] the F-35 cannot turn or accelerate fast enough to maneuver into an advantageous position to shoot at an F-16," says David Axe, a military journalist and blogger. "Nor can it escape an F-16 that's attacking it."

The F-35 Is Still FUBAR

Originally slated to cost $233 billion, the Pentagon's F-35 Joint Strike Fighterprogram could end up being costing more than $1.5 trillion. Which might not be so bad if the super-sophisticated next-generation jet fighter lives up to its hype. Arecent report from the Defense Department's Director of Operational Test and Evaluation paints a pretty damning picture of the plane's already well documented problems. The report makes for some pretty dense reading, but the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group that's long criticized the F-35 program, has boiled down the major issues.

F-35 saga soars to ineptitude, piled upon bungling

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is nothing if not cautious. But sometimes his catastrophe-avoidance reflex can backfire rather badly. Case in point? The F-35.

Does the Royal Canadian Air Force need serviceable fighter jets? Most Canadians would say so. The Conservative government shared that view once: A sole-sourced purchase of 65 new Lightning II stealth fighters, from U.S.-based Lockheed-Martin, formed a part of the Tory election platform in 2011. At the time, Conservatives argued that the “brave men and women in uniform,” deserved nothing but the best, that the F-35 fighter was indeed the best, and that the opposition were ninnies for questioning this.

Rising F-35 price tag setting up tough choices, DND report suggests

A new Defence Department report says the cost of the F-35 has continued to rise, and suggests the Conservative government will face a tough choice if it goes ahead with the controversial stealth fighter.

In particular, the government may be forced to pony up an extra $1 billion or else cut back on the number of aircraft as a result of the weaker Canadian dollar, inflationary changes, and other countries slashing their own orders.

The F-35 annual update obtained by the Citizen presents the most up-to-date cost estimates for the stealth fighter. The reports are part of a government promise to inject more transparency after the auditor general blasted its handling of the project in 2012.

Canadian officials deny reports of secret fighter jet purchase

Senior Canadian government officials say Canada will under no circumstances be purchasing F-35s on an expedited basis and that no decision has been made on which new warplane to buy.

In the face of a U.S. military report that Ottawa has made a secret decision to buy U.S. F-35 stealth fighters, officials say the lack of firm details on cost and capabilities has not instilled confidence. They say Lockheed Martin has not provided Canada with enough basic information to justify acquiring the overbudget F-35s, which constitute the most expensive military procurement program in U.S. history. The fact that glitches prevented Lockheed Martin from flying the F-35 at this summer’s Farnborough airshow in Britain only increases caution in Ottawa, a senior Canadian official said.

Harper’s dishonesty on display in latest Pentagon papers on F-35

The serial dishonesty of the Harper government was back on display last week in pink neon for all to see: the F-35 has surreptitiously re-appeared on the government’s agenda and once again the loser is Parliament.

According to a Canadian Press story by Murray Brewster based on a Pentagon leak, the Harper government plans to buy four F-35s and slip the acquisition into the current fiscal year. In order to get the controversial jet by 2016 or 2017, Canada has to provide the F-35 Project Office with a letter of intent by mid-November. All this is documented in a U.S. Department of Defense slide show. Not a peep in Ottawa.

F-35 purchase by Canada suggested in Pentagon briefing

A leaked Pentagon briefing says Canada has signalled to Washington that it wants to buy at least four F-35 stealth fighters, but a spokesman for Public Works Minister Diane Finley insisted Friday that no decision has been made.

The slide presentation, delivered to the secretary of the U.S. Air Force on Oct. 27, 2014, shows Canada has asked to swap places with the Americans and place the order in the current fiscal year, which means a possible delivery date of either 2016 or 2017.

Americans Have Spent Enough Money On A Broken Plane To Buy Every Homeless Person A Mansion

Just days before its international debut at an airshow in the United Kingdom, the entire fleet of the Pentagon’s next generation fighter plane — known as the F-35 II Lightning, or the Joint Strike Fighter — has been grounded, highlighting just what a boondoggle the project has been. With the vast amounts spent so far on the aircraft, the United States could have worked wonders, including providing every homeless person in the U.S. a $600,000 home.