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Lockheed Threatens Economic Harm to Canada for Refusing to Buy F-35

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marinegirl

marinegirl

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23:32 16.06.2016(updated 03:35 17.06.2016) Get short URL
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The defense contractor attempted to extort one of the most powerful sovereign countries in the world, warning that as many as 10,000 jobs would be lost if the country did not commit to purchasing a fighter jet that 'does not work.'

This weekend, American defense contractor Lockheed Martin threatened to exclude Canadian companies from production of the much maligned F-35 fighter jet if the Trudeau government decides to instead purchase a fleet of Boeing’s Super Hornet fighter jets.

 

"The F-35 does not work and is far from working," said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a June 7 parliamentary debate, blasting the fighter jet that has cost the Pentagon over $1.5 trillion. Despite this exorbitant price tag, the jet continues to spontaneously shut down mid-flight due to software glitches.

The fighter jet that cost US taxpayers more than the gross domestic product of Canada will not face an initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) until mid-2018, according to Pentagon reports. Due to this delay, Lockheed Martin will not complete production of a full fleet of F-35s until 2019 at the earliest and the aircraft may not be combat ready until nearly 2021.

Lockheed Martin attempted to mislead the public about the fiscal and battlefield realities surrounding the costly warplane, conducting a publicity tour across Canadian TV over the weekend to threaten the country’s people with economic reprisals amounting to several hundred million dollars and nearly 10,000 jobs.

 

"I don’t want it perceived as a threat, but we will have no choice: If Canada walks away from F-35, expect to relocate work in Canada to other purchasing nations," Steve Over, Lockheed’s director of F-35 internal business told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Canadian Defense Ministry spokeswoman Jordan Owens blasted the defense firm’s flagrant attempt at intimidation, maintaining that the government will decide on a fighter jet based on security needs. 

"Despite Lockheed’s eagerness to send a spokesperson from Texas to Ottawa in order to game out hypothetical scenarios in the media, Canada remains a member of the Joint Strike Fighter program," said Owens.

The Joint Strike Fighter program is a development and acquisition alliance of the US, UK, Turkey, Italy, Australia, the Netherlands and Canada, under which the member states selected the F-35 Lightning II to replace various tactical aircraft.

 

The program has brought $610 million in contracts to Canadian defense contractors, but Ottawa argues that the JSF agreement does not tie them irrevocably to the F-35 in order to receive program benefits.

"According to the agreement, as long as Canada remains a JSF partner it is fully entitled to have its industry bid and get contracts," said Alan Williams, the former assistant deputy minister at Canada’s Department of National Defense. "There is no stipulation that Canada has to purchase the F-35."

Williams returned the threat to Lockheed Martin saying that any attempts to disenfranchise Canadian firms while the country remains a JSF partner and contributes its payments into the effort will result in immediate legal action against the defense contracting firm.

 

Lockheed Martin spokeswoman Cindy Tessier shot back that the defense firm’s position was that Canada’s involvement in the Joint Strike Fighter program was predicated upon "Canada’s stated commitment to the procurement of 65 jets."

The previous Conservative government led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper initially committed to purchasing 65 F-35s, but attempted to back out of the arrangement citing unforeseen costs and technical issues with the aircraft that made the acquisition impractical.

 

 

http://sputniknews.com/military/20160616/1041478841/lockheed-extorts-canada-purchase-f35.html

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dMog

dMog

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there is the first clue this is a bullshit post...Canada, yes it is a sovereign country...but hardly one of the most powerful ...it is plain and simple to see that you long to see the conspiracies, either made up or half-baked.... or as in most of your posts absolutely totally bizarre ...this one falls in between....   but seriously, not once have you posted anything close to  reality or even 1/10th true

 

 

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marinegirl

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CBC.CA
 

Lockheed Martin warns it will pull $825M in F-35 contracts if Canada buys another jet

Canadian companies could stand to lose at least $10B over lifetime of aircraft

By Murray Brewster, CBC News Posted: Jun 10, 2016 7:00 PM ET Last Updated: Jun 14, 2016 12:14 PM ET

An F-35 Joint Strike Fighter on display at naval yard in Maryland in January.

An F-35 Joint Strike Fighter on display at naval yard in Maryland in January. (Yuri Gripas / Reuters)

U.S. defence giant Lockheed Martin is warning Canada that $825 million in aerospace industrial contracts signed with Canadian companies to build and equip F-35 jets would be moved to other partner nations if the Trudeau government decides to buy a different fighter jet.

Steve Over, the company's director of F-35 international business development, says other countries that have already committed to buying the stealth jet are clamouring for the work.

 

"It's not really a threat," Over said in an interview with CBC News. "I don't want it perceived as a threat, but we will have no choice, if Canada walks away from F-35, except to relocate work in Canada to other purchasing nations."

By the end of the year, Over said he expects the value of Canadian parts and sustainment contracts to reach $1 billion, with an anticipated lifetime value of $10 billion or more.

The comments mark a sharp escalation in the war of words over the Liberal government's efforts to speed up the replacement of the Royal Canadian Air Force's current fleet of CF-18s fighters.

During the 2015 election, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised not to buy the F-35 and instead go with a cheaper alternative. Lockheed Martin remained silent at the time, regarding the comments as campaign rhetoric.

Under questioning this week, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan refused to exclude the notion of a sole-source purchase of brand new Boeing Super Hornet fighters, despite a campaign promise for an open bidding process.

The assistant deputy minister of materiel at DND, Pat Finn, told a House of Commons committee Thursday that all options, from sole-source to full-blown competition, were being studied by the government, but no decision had been made.

 
 
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Lockheed Martin's Steve Over on F-35s and Canada1:01

Change in tone

Earlier in the week, Lockheed Martin officials seemed content to pull their punches when it came to the industrial benefits question, saying only that they would "evaluate their options."

Even going back to 2013, months after the Harper government put the acquisition of the F-35 on hold, company officials were soft-pedalling the consequences, suggesting that if Canada went in a different direction, existing contracts would remain safe but no new work would be offered.

But all of that was tossed aside Friday as Over and other company executives made it clear that existing contracts would be honoured until renewal, and once they expire, they would go to nations participating in the program.

"If, in that most negative scenario where Canada chose to purchase a different airplane, we would have to take those future opportunities that are today envisioned for Canadian industry and we'd have to offer it to countries that are purchasing the airplane," he said. 

Losing future contracts

The example he offered was Mississauga, Ont.-based Magellan Aerospace's 20-year, $1.2-billion subcontract from BAE Systems Inc. to build the jet's tail fins.

"So Magellan would just no longer be offered the opportunity to produce horizontal stabilizers," Over said. 

A 2006 memorandum setting up Canada's participation in the development of the stealth fighter was signed by the Conservative government with the implicit suggestion the country was in for the long haul.

"The government of Canada and Lockheed committed together that we would put this industrial work in Canada, assuming that Canada bought airplanes, and we can't meet our commitments around the rest of the partnership if Canada doesn't buy the airplane," said Over.

"We want to approach this in a good-faith effort, but Canada is going to have to help us with that."

There are approximately 110 Canadian companies working on the F-35.

Industry warns of lost money, jobs

Unlike other defence procurement contracts, the stealth fighter is unique in that Canadian companies don't get guaranteed work. They are required to compete and work collaboratively to keep costs down.

The Lockheed Martin warning comes one day after an open letter published by Canadian companies involved in the program expressed fears about what would happen to them if the Trudeau government went with another plane.

"Not selecting the F-35 will set off a chain of events that will see hundreds of millions of investment dollars lost and high-tech jobs leaving Canada, going to countries who are buying the F-35," said the letter.  

"Sole-sourcing a legacy aircraft will leave Canadian industry in the unfavourable position of working on 30-year-old technology over a finite period of time, with little opportunity to progress Canada's aerospace capabilities globally. The future landscape of the aerospace and defence industry in Canada will be permanently affected in an adverse manner."

The Liberals have attempted to justify their desire to move quickly — and possibly avoid an open competition — by saying the air force is facing a "capability gap," which means it may not have enough fighters to live up to its domestic and international obligations.

In the Commons Friday, Liberal MP John McKay, the parliamentary secretary for defence, put the blame on the previous Conservative government.

He said only 20 of the air force's 77 CF-18s will be available for service by 2025 if circumstances remain the same.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/stealth-fighter-contracts-1.3629403

Home  Air  Has Canada decided to go for F-18 over F-35?
FA-18_Super_Hornets_of_Strike_Fighter_Sq Two U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets.

Has Canada decided to go for F-18 over F-35?

Reports in the Canadian press suggest that the Canada has already made an unofficial decision to buy the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.

 June 7, 2016

In the country’s last election, the Liberal Party said it wouldn’t buy the F-35 earmarked by the previous administration, on cost grounds. This is despite many warning that the Super Hornet would cost the same or even more than the F-35 over the life of the aircraft while delivering lesser capability.

The cost of the F-35A is decreasing yearly and by a significant volume due to economies of scale.

 

Oddly, the decision is based on a campaign promise made in late 2015 by then-prime ministerial candidate Justin Trudeau of the Liberal Party to not buy the F-35A, as the RCAF had originally planned.

Canada has been involved in the Joint Strike Fighter Program from its beginning, investing US$10 million to be an “informed partner” during the evaluation process. Once Lockheed Martin was selected as the primary contractor for the JSF program, Canada elected to become a level 3 participant, along with Norway, Denmark, Turkey and Australia. An additional US$100 million from the Canadian Department of National Defence over 10 years and another $50 million from Industry Canada were dedicated in 2002, making them an early participant of the JSF program.

On 16 July 2010, the Canadian government announced that it would buy 65 F-35s to replace the existing 80 CF-18s for $16B (with all ancillary costs included) with deliveries planned for 2016.

There is precedent for purchasing Super Hornets on an interim basis; Australia bought 24 of the aircraft about five years ago for $2.5 billion, to replace that country’s antiquated F-111 jets until newer F-35s were ready. It’s likely Canada may be following this tactic according to a number of Canadian personnel we spoke to.

Despite this perhaps interim measure, the Liberals have refused to publicly rule out buying the F-35 since winning the election.

https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/canada-decided-go-f-18-f-35/

Lockheed may shift work from Canada if Ottawa snubs F-35 fighter jet

 
lockheed-F-35-good
 
 
Andrea Shalal, Reuters
8:29 AM, E.T. | June 10, 2016
Industrials
 
 
 
 
LOCKHEED MARTINStock data delayed up to 20 minutes
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Top U.S. weapons maker Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) is studying whether to shift work on its multibillion-dollar F-35 fighter jet away from Canadian firms given uncertainty about Ottawa's plans to buy the jet.

Jack Crisler, Lockheed's vice president of business development for the F-35 program, told Reuters Lockheed was under pressure from other partner countries that had placed firm orders or accelerated orders to shift more work to them.

"This is not anything punitive. It is just business," he said in a telephone interview from the Netherlands, where the F-35 will fly in its first international air show on Saturday.

Canadian firms will account for development and production work on the F-35 program worth about $1 billion by the end of 2016, Crisler said.

But future work could be in jeopardy if Canada decides to skip a competition and order F/A-18E/F fighter jets built by rival Boeing Co (BA.N), as indicated by recent Canadian media reports, he said.

A spokeswoman for Canada's defense ministry said the reports were not accurate, but gave no further information.

Crisler said Lockheed had been unable to secure a meeting with the Canadian government to discuss the issue.

He said F-35 supply chain contracts were competitively awarded in rough proportion to the purchase plans of the nine original partner countries that helped fund development of the radar-evading jet: the United States, Britain, Canada, Turkey, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Australia and Denmark.

Canada's ruling Liberals won an election last October on a promise not to buy F-35s because the planes were too expensive. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the House of Commons the opposition Conservatives had "clung to a plane that does not work and is far from being able to work."

Joe DellaVedova, a spokesman for the Pentagon's F-35 office, said Canada remained a partner in the $379 billion program, and U.S. officials continued to provide the Canadian government information about the jets as they decided how to proceed.

More than 180 of the new jets are now flying, including an initial squadron of U.S. Marine Corps F-35 jets that were declared ready for combat a year ago, he said.

Crisler said if Canada held an open competition, Lockheed would retain contracts with Canadian firms, but it would need to rethink if Ottawa opted for a sole-source deal with Boeing.

"We are evaluating all that now," he said. "The most important thing is that we've got to protect the enterprise as we get ready to ramp up production."

Sixty Canadian firms had worked on the F-35 development program, and 70 others are now involved in production of the jets, including Magellan Aerospace (MAL.TO), Crisler said.

Canadian firms involved urged Ottawa on Thursday to hold a fair and open competition to replace its aging fleet of CF-18 fighter jets. Their supply contracts, they wrote in the joint statement, were contingent on Canada buying the F-35.

"Not selecting the F-35 will set off a chain of events that will see hundreds of millions of investment dollars lost, and high-tech jobs leaving Canada, going to countries who are buying the F-35," they said.

 
 
 
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