Soaring F-35 costs means tough choices for government
OTTAWA — A new Defence Department report says the cost of the F-35 has continued to rise, and suggests the federal 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 the slashed orders of other countries.
The F-35 annual update presents the most recent cost estimates for the stealth fighter. The reports are part of a government promise to inject more transparency after the auditor general blasted Ottawa’s handling of the project in 2012.
The government has refused to say whether it plans to move ahead with buying the F-35 or hold an open competition, and it has not set a timeline on when a decision will be made. In the report, National Defence assumes it will begin receiving the first of 65 F-35s in 2020, and that the last will be delivered in 2025.
The report says Canada can expect to pay $45.8 billion to own and operate the stealth fighters through 2052, an increase of only $141 million, or about 0.27 per cent, from the estimate in 2013.
National Defence now has only $76 million in wiggle room for purchasing 65 F-35s within the $9-billion budget envelope as the price of buying the warplanes rose $266 million, or three per cent.