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Last week, only four years after the government announced it would buy 65 F-35 fighter jets for $65 million—no wait, make that $85 million—each, they announced they would postpone the decision until the indefinite future.
“They haven’t made it very clear at all, except to go ahead and test the waters to see if they can sole-source the F-35,” said Jack Harris, the federal NDP critic for national defence. “We’re still in the dark about what the intentions are and we’re still calling for a full, transparent, public competition.”
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The purchase has been mired in controversy since the very beginning, when the decision to buy the planes from Lockheed Martin was made with no contest and then the price magically jumped by $20 million each. Harris said not only is this “enormously more expensive than the government had let on,” it also may be the most expensive procurement in Canadian history.
Most recently, Michael Byers, University of British Columbia’s research chair in global politics and international law, published a study called One Dead Pilot, saying that the choice of a single-engine rather than double-engine jet is dangerous and will result in unnecessary pilot deaths.
“The F-35 has only one engine,” the study says. “This fact alone renders it problematic for use in Canada’s Arctic and extensive maritime zones.” If an engine fails on a plane with two, the pilot turns around and lands quickly. If an engine fails on a plane with only one, it crashes. The report quotes one former pilot saying, “A single engine is stupid. There’s no backup. If it fails, you’re dead.”
The last time Canada operated a single-engine jet, it was nicknamed the ‘Widow Maker’—not by political opponents, but by the guys who flew them. These planes never saw combat but 39 Canadian pilots died flying them anyway. And they were made by—you guessed it—Lockheed Corporation, the predecessor to Lockheed Martin, the company that the Harper government wants to buy a new fleet of F-35s from.
“There are many reasons to be concerned about the F-35, including its still incomplete and unproven character, its relatively slow speed and limited maneuverability, and the considerable cost risks associated with its acquisition, operation, and sustainment,” the report says. The only way the F-35 could be safely used is if the government also makes massive investments in maintenance, inspection, and search and rescue programs.
“A pilot forced to eject after a loss of power in the Arctic might have just a few hours to live. For this reason, if Canada were to acquire the F-35, it would have to invest billions of dollars to improve search and rescue—or accept the inevitable loss of pilots to the elements, even after a safe ejection from their plane.” The report notes the example of Burton Winters, a 14-year-old Inuit boy who went missing on sea ice in Labrador in 2012. Canada’s three search and rescue planes were out for mechanical reasons, so he died from hypothermia before a helicopter was even sent: mdash;which occurred more than 50 hours after he went missing.
But don’t worry. An “independent review panel” created by the government has decided that this decision was made with the utmost “rigour and impartiality.” The review was part of a seven-point-plan the government set to decide which planes will replace the old fleet of CF-18s, just two years after saying they’d buy the F-35s.
According to Public Works Canada, the panel is made up of experts “external to the government.” These experts are: Keith Coutler, the former chief of CSEC better known as that Canadian NSA-wannabe that used airport Wi-Fi to spy on its own citizens; Rod Monette, a former associate deputy minister of national defence; Philippe Lagassé, a University of Ottawa professor and fellow at a defence think-tank that has been criticized for its ties to the Department of National Defence and the Conservative Party, and its attempts to slander journalists who are critical of the military; and last but not least, Jim Mitchell, a former assistant secretary of the Treasury Board of Canada and Privy Council Office bureaucrat who left to start his own consulting firm, which was awarded contracts with “virtually every department and agency in government,” according to Public Works.
At this point it would probably be weirder if the government hadn’t stacked the panel in its favour. According to Byers’ report, this decision has been in the making since long before 2010. Canada joined the F-35 program in 1997 by signing onto its “concept demonstration phase” and then became a “level-three-participant” in the program by contributing $606 million to the development of the aircraft. That being said, the government is under no contract to actually purchase the fleet to this day. They just might look kind of dumb if, after enduring scandal after scandal for these planes, they went back on the decision now.
It’s still possible, though, as “all options are on the table” until a decision is made, according to an email from Sébastien Bois, a media relations officer with Public Works. He said, “ministers are reviewing a number of reports in order to make a decision on a path forward.”
Who knows, maybe they’ll spend the total $45.8 billion on something else, like promoting their own policies or spying on taco fundraisers. Or maybe they’ll just give each Canadian the equivalent $1,300 back. What’s more likely, said Harris, is that the government will push the F-35 purchase through this summer when they think no one’s looking.
