Be very afraid about soaring jet fighter costs

Don Martin, Post Media News:

There's no longer any excuse for future sticker shock when Canada buys its controversial fleet of F-35 jet fighters.

Auditor General Sheila Fraser has identified "troubling" government behaviour in Canada's protracted $11-billion helicopter purchase, which must be corrected to prevent billions more from being wasted in future military spending.

In the generation-long helicopter-buying fiasco, Fraser found the competitions were fixed, the contractual details fudged or hidden while extra toys, gizmos and performance upgrades sent the price soaring on choppers that have suffered from chronically delayed delivery.

If the government refuses to learn from the many mistakes, the $16-billion purchase of Canada's next fighter jets could cost taxpayers $35 billion by the time planes are delivered in 2023. At that point, a future auditor general will deliver a damning report wondering why nobody paid attention to this instructive 2010 analysis.

Continue reading here.