OTTAWA • U.S. aerospace giant Boeing Co. is frustrated by Canada’s decision to extend the life of its aging fleet of fighter jets, a move that will delay a decision on buying replacements, a company official said on Wednesday.
The comments were a rare public expression of unhappiness by Boeing about the way Canada is conducting the process to buy new fighters.
Lockheed Martin Corp’s F-35 is seen as the leading contender to replace Canada’s 80 CF-18 Hornet fighters, and the country could take delivery of an initial four F-35 jets in 2017 under an agreement with the U.S. military.
Canadian officials insist no decision has been made, and that Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet remains in the running. Political sources say Ottawa is likely to opt for the F/A-18 if the F-35 does not win.
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Canada said in September that it would extend the life of its fighters to 2025 from the previous 2020 end-date. That could be bad news for Boeing, which is seeking orders to keep its F/A-18 production line, based in St. Louis County, running past 2017.
“We’re disappointed with the extension of the existing Hornets. We think that pushes the decision (on a replacement) off a little bit,” said Dan Gillian, Boeing’s vice president in charge of the F/A-18.
“If you don’t replace your aging fighters, they get more expensive and they get to be a challenge to maintain, and they become less relevant,” he said.
Canada announced a sole-source contract for 65 F-35s in 2010 but changed its mind in 2012 after a parliamentary watchdog savaged the decision. It is now mulling whether to hold an open competition or confirm the original decision to buy the F-35s.
“If there’s a competition we’ll compete,” Gillian said.
Some critics believe the government is determined to buy the F-35 but will put off the decision until after the next election, set for October 2015.
“Even if they announce they’ll go forth with a competition, there will be a time lag from that point to a source selection, whether it’s six months or a year,” Gillian said.
Boeing says it is confident it can maintain F/A-18 output through the end of 2017. Gillian said that if more orders materialized, production lines could continue working beyond.
Separately, the U.S. Air Force said Wednesday that it still expected Boeing to meet the August 2017 target for delivering 18 new KC-46A refueling planes, but a number of smaller schedule delays will reduce the $52 billion program’s margin for dealing with future issues.
Lieut. Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski told reporters that Boeing expected to carry out the first flight of the new aerial tanker by the end of this year, but that was later than expected.
Pawlikowski said Boeing expected to finalize a revamped overall schedule for the tanker program by February, after a series of technical and integration challenges in recent months, but the Air Force still viewed the August 2017 delivery date as doable.
However, those issues were eating up extra time factored into the program’s schedule, and could eventually jeopardize the August 2017 date, if further issues arose, the general said.