Justin Trudeau says a Liberal government would not buy the F-35 fighter jet and would instead purchase “more affordable” aircraft to replace Canada’s aging F-18s — throwing an issue that has long been a political headache for the Conservatives squarely into the middle of the election campaign.
The Liberal leader is also promising a “leaner, more agile, and better equipped” Canadian military that will operate under current National Defence spending and planned increases, and is also pledging to replace the Conservative government’s “failed” Canada First Defence Strategy.
Trudeau unveiled a series of defence and military commitments Sunday, about a week before the three main federal leaders spar in the Munk Election Debate on Canada’s foreign policy, scheduled for Sept. 28 in Toronto.
Canada has already invested hundreds of millions of dollars into the F-35 stealth fighter jet program — even without buying a single jet — but the entire procurement process has been a huge political problem for the Conservatives and one the party likely hoped had been buried as an election issue.
Trudeau said the Liberals would launch an open and transparent procurement process to acquire new fighter jets other than the F-35s, with the tens of billions of dollars saved used to “fast-track” and expand spending on the Royal Canadian Navy that would “guarantee” the acquisition of long-promised icebreakers and surface combatant ships.
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“The Conservative government never actually justified or explained why they felt Canada needed a fifth-generation fighter. They just talked about it like it was obvious. It was obvious, as we saw through the entire process, that they were particularly, and some might say unreasonably or unhealthily, attached to the F-35 aircraft,” Trudeau told reporters following his announcement at Pier 21 in Halifax.
“The fact is we need an aircraft that’s going to meet Canada’s No. 1 priority, which is defending North American airspace, and there are a wide number of very credible, serious aircraft out there who can bid for that and be respectable and responsible replacements for the CF-18s instead of the F-35s.”
The procurement process would also ensure that bids guarantee industrial benefits for Canadian companies, he said, typically at a rate of $1 for $1.
The Conservative government announced about a year ago it was extending the life of the CF-18s until 2025.
Now, the entire F-35 fiasco risks becoming a political pitfall for Conservative Leader Stephen Harper on the election trail and reminder of the government’s repeated delays in acquiring badly needed military equipment.
Harper suggested Sunday that Trudeau’s announcement raises troubling questions about what sort of capabilities the Liberal leader wants for Canada’s air force.
“My understanding is that it isn’t just that the Liberal leader said he would scrap that particular program; he has indicated we do not need that kind of capacity in our air force,” Harper said at an event in Windsor, Ont.
“We, along with our allies, have been using this exact capacity with our current CF-18s in various parts of the world, including right now in the fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.”
The Conservatives “are not going to abandon” Canada’s fight against the Islamic State, Harper said, promising to stand alongside Canada’s allies and not abandon “that kind of capacity in our air force.”
The Tory government announced in July 2010 its decision to buy the F-35 Lightning II, without following a competitive process, as the replacement for the CF-18s.
The Conservatives and Department of National Defence had favoured the F-35 fighter jet for replacing the CF-18s, and the government repeatedly trumpeted the F-35 aircraft’s stealth capabilities when explaining why it was the only aircraft that meets Canada’s requirements.
The Conservative government initially planned to buy 65 F-35s for the Royal Canadian Air Force, but the procurement process ground to a halt in 2012 after the auditor general accused the government of lowballing project costs and criticized it for keeping Canadians in the dark about the project.
Both the auditor general and parliamentary budget officer questioned the government’s claim that the jets would cost only $16 billion over 20 years, and instead pegged the true costs to be several billions of dollars more.
An independent analysis commissioned by a federal government secretariat said the F-35 would cost around $44 billion over its four-decade lifetime once everything from fuel to pilot salaries and disposal was calculated.
The Canadian government had originally committed a total of $710 million to developing the U.S.-led F-35 program that included the United States and seven other allies. Canada has already contributed at least $344 million toward the program and another $78 million to help Canadian companies compete for contracts.
Canada has been a partner in what was dubbed the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Program since 1997 under the Liberal government.
Trudeau said Sunday that after 10 years of Conservative rule, the Canadian Forces “are in a state of stagnation” and military equipment procurement has become “paralyzed.”
Other key military commitments in the Liberal defence strategy include:
— Along with replacing the CF-18s and re-equipping the Navy, the “top equipment priorities” for the Liberals include “cost-effective” search and rescue aircraft and long-range surveillance drones;
– “Zero tolerance” approach to sexual harassment in a Canadian military that has been struggling with the issue, echoing the sentiments of new Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Jonathan Vance;
— The Liberals say the government’s Canada First Defence Strategy is underfunded and out of date. A Liberal government would immediately launch a transparent review process to create a new Defence White Paper that would replace the government’s current strategy;
— Renew focus on surveillance and control of Canadian territory, especially in the Arctic regions, and increase the size of the Canadian Rangers;
— Ensure billions of dollars in approved military expenditures don’t go unspent, which is known as “lapsed” spending. More than $10 billion in funding allocated by Parliament to the military has gone unspent under the Conservative government, the Liberals said; and
— Trudeau reiterated the Liberal party’s commitment to end Canada’s combat mission in Iraq and instead focus the military’s contribution on the training of local forces, and to immediately welcome 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada.
A Liberal policy document released Sunday said that at an 80-cent Canadian dollar, the “fly away cost” of each Lockheed Martin F-35 is $175 million, with maintenance and other costs bringing that total to $270 million per jet.
On the other hand, the Boeing Super Hornet’s fly away price is around $65 million at an 80-cent dollar, with the possibility that a large proportion of the maintenance can be done in Canada, the Liberals said in the document.
However, the Super Hornet “is merely used as an illustration of cost savings,” the party said, “and is not indicative of which aircraft would win a truly open and transparent competition.”
