You can never go far wrong by underestimating the integrity of the Harper regime. They seem to lie when it would be easier to tell the truth and what they can't lie about they simply omit or hide. If you've ever lived in a really old house you've probably heard the rat behind the baseboards - you'll know what I mean.
Now the Auditor General, Michael Ferguson, is slamming the Harper regime for "significant things" missing from their F-35 numbers.
In particular, he said Ottawa has to factor in costly upgrades to the aircraft, as well as the need to replace some of them in the case of accidents, when it eventually restates the program’s full budget.
“There were some significant things that were missing from the life-cycle costing in this, for example attrition, for example upgrades, and the fact that these aircraft were going to last for 36 years, not just 20 years,” Mr. Ferguson told MPs.
But there's an even bigger "significant thing" nobody is even mentioning, a really huge thing. It's just what Canada will have to do when it discovers the stealth thing was a hyper-expensive gimmick. What will some future government have to do when it inherits a few squadrons of prematurely obsolete airplanes utterly unsuitable to our "Canada First" defence policy? What that government will have to do, if we're going to maintain some sort of sovereignty credibility in the north, is go back to the market and find some other aircraft that is capable of doing that job.
So, yeah, let's include that other "significant thing" - the tens of billions of dollars of value we'll have to simply write off when we find ourselves with aerial white elephants.
Retired Colonel Paul Maillet, former manager of the F-18's and an Aerospace Engineer, interviewed on "As It Happens" last evening says, purchasing the new F 35's is a huge mistake. He sited many problems. It is a poor choice in meeting Canada's needs and a project risk. Trying to purchase something that hasn't been developed yet meaning development in a procurment contract as in the Seaking Helicopters which still haven't been delivered yet. Costs will increase. Colonel ran for the Greens in the last election so you can imagine how much the PC's will pay attention to his argument.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I wrote about that yesterday. In fact I've been cataloging every one of his arguments for months.
ReplyDeleteThis was sent along to you with the intention as a reader, of suporting what you have been writing. Everything written on this blog has been read with interest.
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