(Canadian) Feds to delay F-35 decision until after next federal election

[unhappycamper]

http://www.hilltimes.com/news/politics/2014/03/26/feds-to-delay-f-35-decision-until-after-next-federal-election/37978



Public Works Minister Diane Finley’s department is responsible for the National Fighter Procurement Secretariat. The secretariat told The Hill Times in an email: ‘We will take no decision on the replacement of our CF-18 fleet until our seven-point-plan [to review the F-35 acquisition], the F-35 Joint Program Office has amended the ‘buy profile’ by shifting Canada’s schedule by one year in order to support planning and the development of cost estimates. This moves the national date of first delivery from 2017 to 2018.’

Feds to delay F-35 decision until after next federal election
By TIM NAUMETZ |
Published: Wednesday, 03/26/2014 4:21 pm EDT
Last Updated: Wednesday, 03/26/2014 9:32 pm EDT


PARLIAMENT HILL—The government has delayed its current schedule to sign a contract for an initial delivery of Lockheed-Martin F-35 stealth fighter jets to Canada until after the 2015 federal election year, The Hill Times has learned.

The Public Works Department, while insisting the deadline is “notional” as a special secretariat continues to review expected F-35 capabilities abilities and costs along with three other established fighter jets, confirmed that a U.S. Defence Department office in charge of the F-35 project has changed Canada’s “buy profile” to push back the first delivery of four of the first-strike attack fighters to 2018 from 2017.

The change means an initial “full funding” contract for the 65 planes Canada is still scheduled to acquire over a period of six years would be required in 2016, two years before Lockheed-Martin’s 2018 delivery of the first four planes that would eventually replace Canada’s dwindling and aging fleet of CF-18 fighter jets.

A Department of National Defence report to Parliament last year pegged the estimated lifecycle cost for a fleet of 65 F-35s, including acquisition and maintenance and sustainment over 35 years, at $45.7-billion, including also $1-billion for replacing aircraft lost through attrition during the fleet’s lifetime.