Ship, plane procurement becoming more urgent
Big moves are afoot on the federal military procurement file and not a moment too soon.
The selection and purchase of a jet to replace the 1980s-vintage Boeing CF-18s has been stalled since the former Conservative government’s sole-sourced purchase of 65 Lockheed-Martin F-35s went awry in late 2012, due to concerns over life-cycle costs, and the lack of an open competition. During last year’s federal campaign the Liberals pledged to scrap the F-35 deal, buy a less costly plane and re-apportion any savings to shipbuilding.
There was speculation last spring that a purchase of Boeing Super Hornets was in the offing, which quickly sputtered after the Liberals were accused by the opposition of seeking to engineer their own sole-sourced fighter purchase.
Meantime, at the Irving yard on the East Coast and Seaspan’s shipyard in Vancouver, work continues on a series of Arctic patrol boats and small Coast Guard vessels, respectively. Construction of a new fleet of naval frigates, two mammoth naval supply ships and a large three-season icebreaker for the Coast Guard is still some years off, given current building schedules.
In a recent interview, Jonathan Whitworth, Seaspan’s chief executive, said the first of four smaller vessels for the Coast Guard is on target to be completed next year, with two more coming in 2018.
Whitworth referred questions about Seaspan’s longer-term federal work to a pending federal procurement review, which he said he expects to see by year-end.
In the early going for the government of Justin Trudeau, indications were that, beyond finding a new fighter, not much would change on the procurement front, particularly with respect to the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy unveiled by the Tories in the fall of 2011.
But, the waters were muddied by the accession of Dominic LeBlanc to the post of Fisheries Minister, nominally responsible for the Coast Guard. LeBlanc, because of personal ties to the Irving family, has recused himself from dealings with federal shipbuilding. Industry insiders have expected the absence of an active minister’s hand on the Coast Guard rebuild would further slow decisionmaking.
However, the cabinet defence procurement committee, chaired by Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr, apparently has come around to the view that the status quo will not stand. It may have been spurred by numerous reports, including one last week from the Commons defence committee chaired by Liberal MP Stephen Fuhr, raising alarms about the rapid buildup of Russian military power in the Arctic.
The likely competitors in an open competition for the fighter jet include Boeing’s Super Hornet, Dassault’s Rafale, the Eurofighter Typhoon and Saab’s Grippen, as well as the F-35.
The timing of any aircraft rollout will be of the essence: The 77 CF-18s now flying are being refurbished to extend their lives to 2025, but no further because of life-cycle expiry of the air frames.
On the shipping side, the emerging thinking is the timeline on the two supply ships and three-season icebreaker is too far off to be acceptable. Seaspan is deemed to have its hands full with the four smaller Coast Guard vessels. A similar view was reached by senior figures in the former Conservative government, before it fell.
Should part or all of the supply-ship and large-icebreaker work go elsewhere, the Western shipyard would likely be given additional contracts on smaller Coast Guard cutters, which also will need to be replaced in the medium term, a senior industry source suggested. Twitter.com/mdentandt