Liberal plan to buy Super Hornets caps long turnaround by Ottawa on Boeing jets

[A U.S. Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet fighter jet launches from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman in the Mediterranean Sea in a photo released by the U.S. Navy on June 3, 2016. REUTERS]

Six years ago, the multinational aerospace manufacturer and defence contractor Boeing set up a simulator at an Ottawa arms trade show for its Super Hornet fighter jet.

Seattle-based Boeing was almost certainly aware at the time of pressure on Canada to replace its aging fleet of CF-18 Hornets and the furious lobbying that had been ongoing over what jet would be picked. The company was trying to convince anyone who would listen of the superiority of its product.

But six weeks later, the Harper government committed to spending billions of dollars buying 65 F-35s from Boeing’s competitor Lockheed Martin.

The decision built into a controversy over costs and then an outright auditor general-sized scandal over process, forcing the government to back down and instead transform the file into a complex exercise in bureaucracy.

Now, Boeing gets to put a notch in its win column, as it was revealed Monday by the National Post that the Trudeau government is planning on buying new Super Hornets.

The article makes it clear that the Super Hornets are not being considered just yet for a full fleet replacement — just a stopgap measure.

“Rather than a full replacement of the air force’s aging CF-18 fighter fleet,” the newspaper reported, “it’s believed the purchase will be labelled an interim measure to fill what Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan has warned is a pending ‘gap’ in Canada’s military capabilities.”

Nevertheless, that line must have made the executives at Boeing quite happy, as it was an idea they themselves had been suggesting.

In fact, when Boeing International president Marc Allen was in Ottawa in February talking with the government as well as industry and commercial customers, he said “the operational gaps are clear.”

“It’s not going to allow a lot of time. So we have to be ready to move just as quickly as is needed,” he said at the time.

It’s a bit of poetic justice, as this line of thinking has been in vogue ever since former Harper defence minister Peter MacKay made the argument when making the case for the F-35.

But despite the Harper government’s move to extend the life of the jets through 2025, the idea is now back and the Liberals appear to be acting on it.

Sajjan seemingly bumped up the timeline for the replacement of the jets when he said Canada needs new jets “now” and the issue “needs to be dealt with quickly.”

In question period on Monday, the Opposition pummelled the Liberals over
the media report. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence John McKay responded by suggesting the government had to move
on the file quickly after years of inaction by the Conservatives.

“The minister’s taken the responsible action and he is moving forward
with making a decision sooner rather than later,” he said. “We cannot
any longer carry on in the fashion we have been carrying on.”

McKay said a decision on the replacement for the jets has been pending
for up to eight years.

“Had the previous government done something more than get in and out of photo ops, possibly we wouldn’t be talking about this at this point,” he said to grumblings from the Opposition benches.

The Liberals have already given several indications that they have some sort of preference for the Super Hornet. The jet was featured in its 2015 election campaign material as a better jet for Canada in terms of price and jobs than the F-35.

At the same time, the party promised to exclude the F-35 from any decision. They later backed off that promise, and Monday’s Post article cites an unnamed defence department official arguing that the climbdown has been out of “fear any attempt to exclude the stealth fighter from a competition will result in a multi-billion-dollar lawsuit.”

While the F-35 isn’t the only competitor to the Super Hornet, the Post article also suggests “officials have indicated that Canada all but has to buy an American-built plane, given the importance of joint continental defence with the U.S.”

That means other jets that have been discussed over the years as potential replacements, like the Dassault Rafale, the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Saab Gripen, are all out, leaving only the Super Hornet as a contender.

Sajjan has committed to carrying out a major review of Canada’s defence policy, the first in a generation, by the end of 2016.