By Ken Pole | January 9, 2017 Estimated reading time 3 minutes, 47 seconds.
The Department of National Defence now has until Jan. 31 to comply with a request by Parliamentary Budget Officer Jean-Denis Fréchette to provide cost estimates for the government’s proposed acquisition of 18 Boeing Super Hornets as interim frontline fighters.
Fréchette originally had given Deputy Defence Minister John Forster until Jan. 6 to respond as to “whether or not you provide access to the information.” A spokesperson for the PBO told Skies Jan. 9 that a meeting after the original request was submitted Dec. 8 had resulted in the postponement. No other details were available and the extension had not been posted on the PBO’s website.
Fréchette has asked for “cost estimating data and analysis” used to estimate total lifecycle costs of the Super Hornets to compare with “maintaining and operating an equivalent number of the existing fleet” of CF-188 Hornets.
When Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan unveiled the proposal Nov. 22, he told reporters that the Super Hornets would be an “interim” stopgap as the government continues to consider options for replacing the aging legacy fighters, which it expects to keep in service for nearly another decade.
Sajjan said the current fleet was not serviceable enough for the Royal Canadian Air Force to meet all commitments to Canada’s military alliances. Gen Jonathan Vance, the Chief of the Defence Staff, added that “there are days where we don’t have enough aircraft to do one of the missions.”
Public Works and Procurement Minister Judy Foote said discussions with Boeing would “start immediately” because “we need to get the interim fleet in place as quickly as possible.”
Sajjan had flagged the problem last spring. “We are risk-managing a gap between our NORAD and NATO commitments and the number of fighters available,” he told a trade show audience. “In the 2020s, we can foresee a growing capability gap. . . . This I find unacceptable and it’s one thing that we plan to fix.”
Asked about the PBO’s request, Sajjan said Foote was “currently in the process of starting discussions with Boeing” and “once those discussions become more fruitful and we can get the detailed costing out, we will make sure that Canadians know exactly what the full lifecycle cost . . . will be.”
He also said that he looked forward to working with PBO analyst Peter Weltman, who was named in Fréchette’s letter. “I want to make sure that any decision . . . we make is going to be fully justified.”
Australia, faced with an aging fleet of General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark fighter-bombers a decade ago, took a similar approach to addressing its own evolving capability gap. In 2007, its government signed an AUS$2.9 billion contract for 24 F/A-18F Super Hornets, expecting to pay some AUS$6 billion over 10 years once training and in-service support costs were added. Amid intense criticism and after a further review, a new administration decided to proceed in 2008 and the first Super Hornets entered service with the Royal Australian Air Force in 2010.
The problem with Super Hornet it was never tested in the Mckinley Climatic Laboratory because it was having wing drop issues and the semi permiable wing fairing that NASA came up with as a fix won’t work when it is iced over snow and frost.
To put it more bluntly the Super Hornet is a sunny day warm weather fighter designed to operate in the Pacific aboard an aircraft carrier.
Of course Canada should buy the Super Hornets; only 18 is not nearly enough! Realistically it should be 35-40. And the cost would be less than half of the cost of an equivalent number of F 35 Lightnings. I wrote the Defense Minister over a year ago proposing the purchase of the Super Hornets. The longer they wait the higher the cost per unit. Wake up Liberals!!
I’d love to know where your “half the cost” information comes from. The current cost of the Super Hornet is almost as high as the F-35A, which is down under $100 million in the last production lot. The Super Hornet production line has slowed way down, and can no longer deliver for lower cost.
The best is Dassault Rafale.Put it to the test,Super hornet is just a “Big Truck” to carry bombs,Rafale is Super High Tech Fighter 4,5 Plus Generation Fighter.In Aviation,French Planes are Best!