Expensive Government Study Confirms Sixth Estate’s F-35 Cost Estimate
December 8th, 2012
You read it here first, on Sixth Estate: the F-35 jet fighter will cost $48.7 billion. Well, almost, anyways. The government spent a great deal more than Sixth Estate earns from this blog (presently zilch) getting a world-class accounting firm to estimate the cost for them. It turns out that the cost will be $45.8 billion. The difference is probably something to do with estimating the costs of weapons and upgrades.
Basically, we can buy the F-35, or we can put a colony on the Moon. Obviously the first is more important.
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Too bad they didn’t listen to you or a lot of other people a little earlier.
However, I guess they thought they could just “tough it out” and if when the jets finally arrived and they were “a wee bit” over projected cost, that could easily be slipped under the carpet. One wonders, however, why the Defense Department didn’t start developing some alternatives as this problem grew?
And an amusing article in the G&M that manages to completely ignore the whole “accountability” issue:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/its-panic-all-over-as-ottawa-rethinks-f-35-purchase/article6124553/
MoS
It’s Steve Harper’s own Avro Arrow fiasco and damn but doesn’t it look good on him. We’ll probably be saving a good many pilots’ lives by ditching this single-engine sub-performer in any case.
The nonsense about this being a 50-year warplane was the biggest con of them all. It will probably be obsolete before it reaches peak production in 2019.
I’m pretty sure the Chinese and the Russians are hoping everybody gets saddled with the F-35. It would make their long-term planning a whole lot easier.
Sixth Estate
I guess we’re going to rehash our discussion from my last post on this.
You make a fair point, but if the official plan calls for using the plane for 40 years, then it’s deceitful to publish a costing plan that assumes you’re only using it for 20. It’s got to be consistent, one way or the other.
hm
drone wars have begun they have.And you want to buy f35.?haha
http://www.standard.net/stories/2012/07/30/air-force-drones-replacing-fighter-jets
Mark Collins
Things can be reviewed at this post at the Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs Institute’s “3Ds Blog”, note last link:
“F-35: The Canadian Conservative Government’s Lost Crusade”
http://www.cdfai.org/the3dsblog/?p=1671
Mark
Ottawa
Sixth Estate
Thanks, Mark.
saskboy
I’d like to nominate Harper for the honour of being put on the Moon. One way, obviously.
Sixth Estate
Actually I’ve been thinking he would be a good leader for this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_One
Maybe we can convince him to join up.
kootcoot
All the ongoing B.S. about the cost is it 9 bil, 20 bil, 40 bil, or even 50 bil is beside the point. The main thing is that it is useless for Canada’s needs. It can’t patrol and protect our longest coastline on the planet and IS NOT a fighter or interceptor. It is an under-performing Edsel that lacks speed, maneuverability. self-contained navigation and is lacking in defensive or offensive armament except for the ability to carry a bomb or two.
Mainly, indeed only, it is a manned short range missile useless for anything other than US/NATO foreign legion attacks on reasonably protected airspace and vulnerable even at that because once the fuel tankers and AWACs are taken out, and they are both easy targets, the JSF-35 can’t even return to base, though maybe the invaded target city would let them land to utilize the scrap metal!
The Sixth Estate » New F-35 Numbers Based on 40% Cut in F-35 Flight Hours, Still Hiding Billions of Dollars
[...] life on the airframes would be miraculously free of charge. That was the main rationale behind the official Sixth Estate estimate for the fighters, which had $48 billion looked almost dead on relative to the newest [...]