Canada’s Full F-35 Cost Could Climb To $71 Billion – DND Report

http://blogs.ottawacitizen.com/2013/09/03/canadas-full-f-35-cost-could-climb-to-71-billion-dnd-report/

Canada’s Full F-35 Cost Could Climb To $71 Billion – DND Report
September 3, 2013. 10:33 am

PARLIAMENT HILL—A worst-case scenario of cost risks in a Department of National Defence report on a possible acquisition of 65 Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighter jets estimates the airplanes could cost Canada up to $71-billion through acquisition, sustainment and operations over 36 years.

The costs, $25-billion more than the current National Defence estimate, are contained in a section of the department’s latest report to Parliament on the F-35 that outlines “cost risk and uncertainty” and is intended to provide a range of effects on the cost of buying and operating a fleet of stealth attack planes if factors such as inflation, the exchange rate between the Canadian and U.S. dollar, the cost of fuel and the rate of aircraft to be produced by Lockheed Martin fluctuates either higher or lower than the estimates that are behind the current National Defence figures.