Full cost of the F-35

Is finally revealed: $46 billion over 42 years.

As the Canadian government tries to backtrack from its once-unshakable support for the multibillion-dollar F-35 fighter jet, the U.S. military is laying plans for what it is calling a “sixth-generation” aircraft to replace that stealth jet as early as 2030.

The Canadian Forces is still keen on purchasing the F-35 fighter, with military leaders labelling it a “fifth-generation” plane, a reference to its high-technology advantages over other jets. The Canadian military had planned to operate the F-35 from 2020 to around 2060.

The U.S. navy asked aerospace companies earlier this year for information about what they might offer for a sixth-generation fighter. The U.S. air force has also acknowledged it is planning for a similar aircraft more advanced than the F-35.

At a recent meeting at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, Gen. Mike Hostage, chief of the U.S. air force’s combat command, provided more details on the plane his organization wants to buy. The sixth-generation aircraft would not be a drone and instead would be flown by a pilot. The air force would need the new plane around 2030 and it would be equipped with what he called “gamechanging capability,” he noted.

“We don’t yet know what it is, but we’re out there looking

“The only thing changing is that the cost keeps going up.”

RIDEAU INSTITUTE’S STEVE STAPLES

carefully,” Hostage said at the conference.

The air force would keep the F-35s flying as well, at least for the midterm. “I need the F-35 to add a fifth-generation layer to make the fourthgeneration force effective out to 2030,” Hostage said.

But Rideau Institute president Steve Staples said the U.S. military plans for a new jet shows the folly of the Conservative government’s original plan to buy the F-35. “This is just a huge treadmill being paid for by public dollars and you can be sure that before the paint is dry on any F-35s Canada buys, our generals will be claiming they need a so-called sixth-generation fighter as well,” said Staples, a critic of the F-35 and excessive defence spending.

He said the current fleet of Canadian CF-18s could be kept flying and used for the defence of North America for years to come. The only role for new fighters is to support U.S. operations and “shock and awe” campaigns against other nations, Staples added.

Staples said that term “game-changing capability” had also been used to describe the technology outfitted in the F-35s. “The only thing changing is that the cost keeps going up for these type of aircraft,” he added.

Other critics have labelled such terms as fifth- and sixthgeneration fighters as marketing ploys of aerospace companies to keep countries purchasing new planes.

The major aerospace firms in the U.S. are already working on the sixth-generation planes to meet the U.S. military’s desire for a new aircraft within 18 years.

Still, some analysts have questioned whether the U.S., which is facing large-scale fiscal problems, can continue to afford to buy such planes.