Canada is working to bring forward a decision on its new fighter to later this year, with the Lockheed Martin-led F-35 Joint Strike Fighter facing ostensible competition from the Boeing F/A-18E/F, Eurofighter Typhoon and Saab Gripen NG (Next Generation).

"We are trying to advance the decision to 2009," says a Department of National Defense (DND) official. The intent, assuming the F-35 is selected, is to allow Canada to participate in a potential "consortium buy" promising better pricing and industrial rewards.

"A consortium buy would allow us to put international aircraft under a longer-term contract in advance of U.S. multi-year procurement," says Tom Burbage, Lockheed's executive vice president and general manager, F-35 program integration. "This would allow us to do some average pricing," to reduce the cost of early production aircraft.

Lockheed tried to put together a consortium-buy proposal a year ago - criticized by some as a controversial effort - but Burbage says the supply chain was "up to its ears" negotiating the first three low-rate initial production contracts.

"We plan to go back to the supply chain a year from now and negotiate a proposal for Lot 5. Most of the international aircraft come in with Lot 6," he says.

Canada is working to get a fighter decision on the cabinet's agenda for later this year. A cabinet go-ahead would allow the DND to submit its plan for procurement of 65 aircraft to Ottawa's treasury board for budget approval.

According to the DND official, there are no plans to accelerate the delivery of new fighters, which are planned to begin by 2018 to replace Canada's CF-18s as they are phased out between 2017 and 2020.

Canada was the first country to join the United States and the United Kingdom as a partner in development of the JSF, and its industry has significant participation on the program. The original plan was to replace all 80 CF-18s, but "65 is sufficient to do the job," says the official.

Photo credit: Lockheed Martin