No Alternative to F-35, US, Canada Say

Nov 18, 2011 By Phil Stewart/Reuters AviationWeek.com

HALIFAX, Canada - Defense chiefs from the U.S. and Canada said Nov. 18 that budgetary pressures would not derail development of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, saying there was no real alternative to what has become the Pentagon’s costliest weapons program.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said flatly he was confident the U.S. Congress would approve funding for the F-35, which is facing fresh scrutiny for possible cuts as lawmakers weigh how to scale back the U.S. deficit.

The comments came two days after Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay expressed concern about reports of delays in F-35 delivery and said his government was in direct talks with manufacturer Lockheed Martin.

But MacKay, speaking to reporters alongside Panetta at a security conference in Halifax, Canada, said his country would press ahead with the program.

“There is no fifth-generation aircraft other than the F-35 available to Canada and the United States. So all of the hypothetical discussions, and negative discussions, quite frankly, about this program are really just clatter and noise,” MacKay said.

“This program is going ahead.”

The U.S. is developing the family of radar-evading F-35s with eight international partners—Canada, Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, Australia, Denmark and Norway.

It is currently projected to cost the United States more than $382 billion to buy a total of 2,447 F-35 models over the next two decades. Other countries, including the co-development partners, are expected to buy roughly another 750 aircraft.

Canada says it plans to buy 65 of the jets, which in theory will start arriving in 2016. It has not yet signed a binding contract.

Panetta acknowledged that the Pentagon was still looking at ways to make the $450 billion in cost-cuts over the next decade, approved by Congress.

“But we also have to look to areas where we have to continue to invest for the future. And the F-35 is one of those areas, where we are going to continue to invest for the future,” Panetta said.

Panetta’s comments appeared predicated on the expectation that Congress would reach a deficit reduction deal before a Nov. 23 deadline.

If a 12-member congressional “super committee” fails, automatic, across-the-board cuts would kick in. Those would force the Pentagon to slash another $600 billion over the next decade, something that Panetta has warned could affect the F-35 program in a letter to Congress released earlier this week.

“This is the fighter plane for the future. And in some ways we really have no alternative,” Panetta told reporters in Halifax.

“This is the plane that is going to be able to provide the technology, the capabilities for the future. We need to have those. It’s true for us. It’s true for our partners.”