October 11, 2019 | Local, Aerospace
DAVID PUGLIESE, OTTAWA CITIZEN
Canada's future fighter jet competition has already lost two European competitors.
Will it lose a third, the Gripen built by Saab of Sweden?
At the end of August, the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence and Airbus Defence and Space informed the Canadian government of their decision to withdraw from Canada's future fighter competition. Airbus had been offering Canada the Eurofighter Typhoon.
Last year the European firm Dassault informed the Canadian government it would not be competing in the competition. It had been planning to offer Canada the Rafale fighter jet.
Airbus and the UK Defence Ministry noted that their decision to withdraw was the result of a detailed review of Canada's request for proposals which was released to industry on July 23. Airbus pointed to the changes Canada made to the industrial benefits package to appease Lockheed Martin as well as the excessive costs that U.S.-Canadian security requirements placed on a company based outside North America.
“A detailed review has led the parties to conclude that NORAD security requirements continue to place too significant of a cost on platforms whose manufacture and repair chains sit outside the United States-Canada 2-EYES community,” the statement from Airbus and the UK Defence Ministry noted. “Second, both parties concluded that the significant recent revision of industrial technological benefits obligations does not sufficiently value the binding commitments the Typhoon Canada package was willing to make, and which were one of its major points of focus.”
The $19 billion competition has been dogged by allegations it is designed to favour Lockheed Martin's F-35 stealth fighter.
Take for instance, the response that Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan provided when the Liberal government in November 2016 announced the purchase of 18 interim Boeing Super Hornets. That deal was eventually scuttled after Boeing decided to go after Bombardier in a trade dispute over civilian aircraft.
But at the time when the purchase was announced, Sajjan was asked why Canada was buying the Super Hornet and not one of the other fighter jets on the market.
“When you look at the various aircraft, we have our NORAD commitment's (which are) extremely important,” the defence minister responded. “There's certainly interoperability issues as well.”
Procurement Minister Judy Foote was more blunt. “From our perspective, we're working with the American government, so we have to look at an American plane.”
So how is that different from the aircraft to be selected for the future fighter jet competition?
Sajjan and Foote were stating in November 2016 that Canada needed to buy American because of its NORAD commitments and other interoperability concerns with the U.S.
Nothing appears to have changed in the last three years, at least as far as the federal government and Canadian Forces are concerned.
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