JETS LAGGED
Millions in CF-18 upgrades ahead as F-35 decision sits in limbo.
OTTAWA • Canadian taxpayers will likely be on the hook for millions of dollars to keep the country’s aged CF-18 fighter jets flying into the next decade because of delays in finding a replacement aircraft, secret documents show.
The revelation represents the latest wrinkle in what has become one of the most troubled military procurement projects in Canadian history, which continues to sit in limbo as the countdown to next year’s election begins.
The backbone of Canada’s air force, the CF-18s were purchased in the early 1980s with the idea they would be retired in 2003. Instead, $2.6-billion was spent on upgrades starting in 2001 to keep them flying until 2020.
When the Conservative government announced in 2010 that Canada would be buying 65 F-35s for $16-billion (a fig- ure that was later revealed to be $45-billion), the plan was to have the new stealth fighters start arriving in 2017 to seamlessly phase out the CF18s. But that was before auditor general Michael Ferguson raised significant concerns about the way the F-35 project had been managed, prompting the Conservative government to pause in late 2012 and re-examine its options.
The government has refused to say when it will announce a decision to either purchase the F-35 without a competition, or hold an open competition to replace the CF-18s. It has been sitting on a report, outlining the pros and cons of either option as well as of upgrading the CF-18s, since April, and provided no hints as to which way it is leaning or why the decision is taking so long. The government has refused to release a version of the report that was supposed to be made public.
However, documents obtained by Postmedia News show that no matter what the government decides, the delays mean the Royal Canadian Air Force will now be stuck using the CF-18s until well into the 2020s. That will cost money, the documents suggest.
“Irrespective of the fighter replacement option chosen, the CF-18 Estimated Life Ex- pectancy will need to be extended,” deputy minister Richard Fadden wrote in a secret briefing note to then-defence minister Peter MacKay and associate defence minister Julian Fantino in May 2013.
“Extending the useful life of the CF-18 will likely require expenditure authority and contract authority for associated capital investments,” Mr. Fadden added.
Mr. Fadden wrote that National Defence was conducting a “thorough examination” of the CF-18 fleet, which would include “the cost of necessary upgrades to maintain safe and effective operations” past 2020. Those cost estimates are included in the options report now sitting with the government.
A government source said that Mr. Fadden’s assessment that an upgrade will be necessary remains valid, particularly as it was predicated on the idea the government would announce a decision on the F-35 by the end of 2013.
The CF-18s aren’t the only Canadian military aircraft that were supposed to be replaced but that will instead get a life extension.
The Conservative government had planned to buy a new fleet of airplanes to patrol Canada’s coasts and its Arctic territory by 2020. Instead, it will invest more than $2-billion to keep its existing Aurora planes flying until 2030, by which point they will be nearly 50 years old.
“The fact is you can maintain and extend the life of any asset virtually indefinitely,” said Alan Williams, a former head of military purchasing and frequent critic of the F-35. “It just means money.”
Mr. Williams said the Conservative government was warned against pinning all its hopes on the F-35 given that the aircraft was still in development, and that holding an open competition could have prevented the need for sinking more money into the CF-18s.
But defence analyst David Perry of the Conference of Defence Associations Institute said spending some money to extend the life of the CF-18s isn’t necessarily a bad move if it gives Canada the flexibility needed to make the right decision on replacing them.
“It didn’t seem to me to be that bad an idea if it could be done at relatively low cost,” he said. “If you have an ability to spend some money in the interim, then you can make some adjustments.”
A life extension also could give the Conservative government flexibility in another way, Mr. Perry said: being able to put off a decision until after the next election, which is slated for October 2015.
Many had expected the Conservative government to make an announcement on the way forward while Canadians were preoccupied with summer.