OH NO! Looks like Mr. Harper is going to have to eat his words. He said that the life cycle cost of the F-35 program for Canada would be $16 billion over 20 years, i.e. $9 billion for acquisition and $7 billion for service contracts ($350M per year). Today, the Canadian Department of National Defence (DND) came out and said that those estimates are now low but they are waiting for details from the Pentagon to asses the impact. A former Candian Defence official indicates that he currently estimates the cost of a Canadian service contract (not including procurement) at $24B over 30 years ($800M per year) based on figures from the Pentagon, an increase of more than twice the previous amount estimated by DND.
This supports Opposition assertions that the replacement of the CF-18s should go to tender and a competition held. This will ensure that Canada gets the best bang for the buck, with a guarantee of industrial offsets (see my previous post on Apr 8, 2011). If Mr. Harper and his Conservatives get a majority in this election, you can kiss the promises he's made to be implemented when the books are balanced (you know, the ones he's promised families) a big sweet goodbye!
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