- Filed Under
More
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper opened the door Feb. 14 for a possible cut in the number of F-35 fighter jets Canada will buy, after reports that the United States was scaling back its purchase plans.
“There’s a budget for that and the government has been clear, we will operate within that budget,” Harper said in parliament about the project.
The Joint Strike Fighter is supposed to form the backbone of the future U.S. air fleet and 11 other allied countries have joined the program.
But defense officials have struggled to keep costs under control, with each plane’s price tag doubling in real terms over the past decade.
Ottawa has budgeted Can$8.5 billion to buy 65 F-35 fighter jets plus another Can$7.5 billion for lifetime maintenance.
If the United States now buys fewer of the F-35 fighter jets, the price for each would further increase, and if Canada is not ready to spend more, it would have to scale back the number of jets it buys to stay within budget.
Defense Minister Peter MacKay earlier sidestepped questions about a possible reduction in the number of jets purchased.
But Canada’s minister responsible for military procurement, Julian Fantino, told public broadcaster CBC on Feb. 13 when asked if he was open to reconsidering the purchase: “I think Canada, as with all other countries, has to be very much plugged into the environment, the economics of the day.”
