Lockheed is Back and Pushing Hard

Now with that cursed Parliamentary Budget Officer safely out of the way, Lockheed Martin has opened a public relations blitz to flog the F-35 to the Canadian Armed Forces.

Lockheed used to claim the F-35 could be had by Canada for $65-million a copy.   This time it's upped the stated price to $85-million per.   That's an extra $20-million over the span of just 18-months.  The pilot's helmet alone is said to cost $2-million each, although Lockheed says the price is barely half that.

"It's going to survive in the short term; it's not going to survive in the long term," says Winslow Wheeler, a Washington defence expert who spent 10 years at the General Accounting Office, keeping an eye on the budget.

Another Washington defence analyst, former Pentagon official Pierre Sprey, says the real cost will be far higher than advertised.
"This airplane — despite what the air force says, or Lockheed Martin or Canadian generals — this aircraft will come close to costing a quarter of a billion dollars apiece," says Sprey.
"My prediction is they'll kill the program after 500 airplanes."

The idea of Canada buying 65 of these things as our sole combat warplane is madness.   Holland was planning to order 85 and it's about the same size as Vancouver Island.   Diminutive Denmark was figuring on getting 45 although, like others, they're now looking elsewhere.