It will cost close to $30 billion to buy and maintain 65 F-35 fighter jets according to Parliament's budget watchdog — billions more than estimates given by the Conservative government.
Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page said in a report Thursday that his $29.3 billion estimate covers the purchase price and sustainment costs for the fleet over 30 years. The budget officer said the "total ownership" cost estimate from the department of national defence over the same period amounts to $17.6 billion based on his calculations.
Now there's this coming out of the US.
New fighter jets Canada plans to buy will be more than $100 million each — at least $25 million more per plane than government estimates — according to a top U.S. budget watchdog.
Conservative government officials have said 65 new joint strike fighters being built to replace Canada's F-18 jets will cost about $75 million each, about $9 billion with training and an additional $200-$300 million a year in maintenance.
These Cons are pathological liars. There's not an honest impulse in their deviant little minds. Nothing they say or do has a grain of integrity.
2 comments:
On As It Happens on March 24, US Defence analyst Winslow Wheeler offered a scathing critique of the F-35s, calling both the Canadian government and Kevin Page's cost estimates "hopelessly optimistic" at $75M and $128M respectively.
Pentagon estimate is $155M per, he said, with maintenance costing out at 3 to 4 times that.
The same day, Alan Williams, the DND guy who signed the 2002 MOU for the purchase, wrote :
"...purchase price of $7.8 billion (at $120 million per aircraft), long-term support costs of $19.5 billion, for a total cost of $27.3 billion over approximately 25 years."
More evidence of
harper fulfilling his promises.
Welcome to the Canada none of us recognize any longer . . . .
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