Cost of F-35s Will be Higher than Advertised

Defence officials said the cost of servicing Canada's planned purchase of 65 fighters will be higher than what the Tories have suggested.

The cost of maintaining the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) jets will be higher than the estimate of $75 million per plane, officials with the Department of National Defence have confirmed. The department can't provide a new figure for how much the jets will cost until the U.S. provides it with a copy of a recent Pentagon report outlining spending that could push the maintenance cost of one F-35 to $375 million over the course of its lifetime. If the fighters are adopted in Canada, the Pentagon cost changes would put the total cost of servicing 65 F-35s for 30 years – which is the Canadian government's current plan – north of $24 billion. This is nearly three times the $9 billion touted by Conservatives. The Liberal party has campaigned upon a promise to pull out of the JSF program and open a bidding process to find jets to replace the Canadian Forces' fleet of aging CF-18s.

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