Canada will purchase 16 new tactical transport aircraft, but Defence Minister Bill Graham is already fending off accusations that the multibillion-dollar program is rigged in favor of Lockheed Martin’s C-130J.
Graham announced on Nov. 22 that the government hopes to quickly acquire the aircraft for 4 billion to 5 billion Canadian dollars ($3.3 billion to $4.2 billion), a price tag that includes 20 years of industry-provided maintenance and support.
“The procurement process for this will be competitive, fair and transparent,” Graham said in a televised news conference from Ottawa [emphasis added].
The expected candidates for the program are the C-130J, EADS’ A400M and Boeing’s C-17.
But military analysts, aerospace industry officials and opposition politicians argue that the requirements set out by the Canadian government eliminate the latter two.
They say the Boeing entrant will by ruled out by the announced price target, while the Airbus plane won’t be able to meet the requirement to have its airworthiness certification when the purchase contract is signed in about a year. The A400M won’t be flying until at least 2007, aerospace industry officials said.
“It’s going to be a pretty short competition because the C-130J will be the only aircraft able to compete,” said one official.
Graham acknowledged the certification requirement is different than from some previous Canadian military aircraft procurements, but he denied the government has pre-selected the C-130J...
Conservative Party defense critic Gordon O’Connor and Bloc Quebecois defense critic Claude Bachand accused the Liberal government of designing the program to eliminate the A400M and C-17 from competition.
“[Graham] has fixed the requirements so there is only one possible outcome,” O’Connor said. “Why is this sole-source contract for the Lockheed C-130J aircraft being spun as a competition when it is not?” [emphasis added--some chutzpah in light of later events]
Graham said the opposition parties are standing in the way of re-equipping the Canadian Forces...