L-3 MAS wins maintenance contract worth $467 million for Canada's CF-18s
Wednesday, September 1, 2010 at 03:11PM The federal government has contracted Quebec-based L-3 Communications Mass to maintain its fleet of CF-18 fighter jets for up to another decade.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Defence Minister Peter MacKay made the announcement Wednesday at the company's operations in Mirabel.
The $467-million contract to L-3 Communications Mass begins this year and runs until 2017, with a three-year extension option. The work will be completed at L-3's facilities in Quebec and Alberta.
The contract guarantees another decade of "useful life" for Canada's CF-18s, but the aircraft "will not go on forever," Harper told reporters.
"Our government is committed to providing the Canadian Forces with the tools and equipment they need to defend our sovereignty at home and perform their missions abroad."
The Conservative government has agreed to purchase 65 F-35 Joint Strike fighters to replace its fleet of CF-18s at a cost of up to $18 billion.
F-35s 'a necessary purchase': PM
The Opposition Liberals have pledged to review the sole-sourced purchase if they are elected to form the next government to see whether Canadians received the best possible deal without a single competing bid.
"The priorities of this government are prisons and planes," Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said Wednesday. "Is this what Canadians want from their government right now, in the middle of a $54 billion deficit?"
But the prime minister noted it was a Liberal government that initially signed Canada to the F-35 project in 2002. He also emphasized the spinoff benefits from the CF-18 project and the F-35 contract to Canada's aerospace industry, much of which is based in Montreal.
"We will need this equipment at the end of the decade," he said. "So the opposition should stop playing political games with this and support this, which is a necessary purchase for all of us."
The F-35 purchase is expected to benefit nearly 100 Canadian companies and support thousands of technology jobs.
From CBC News
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