Critics take aim at plan to buy new Lockheed planes
Updated Fri. Oct. 27 2006 9:29 PM ET
David Akin, CTV News
OTTAWA -- As a key checkpoint approaches for a multi-billion dollar contract to buy new military planes, new questions are being raised about the suitability of the Canadian defence department's preferred choice to win that contract, the Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules.
The Canadian government has committed to spend up to $4.6-billion to buy 17 aircraft to replace its aging fleet of C-130E and C-130H Hercules aircraft, some of which have been flying since the 1960s.
Senior generals are believed to favour replacing the old 'Hercs' with the new 'Hercs', the 130J.
The government invited tenders for that contract last month but there have been complaints that the mandatory requirements in that tender rule out every plane but the C-130J.
"It's a fake competition, therefore you might not get at the right product," said Ujjal Dosanjh, the Liberal defence critic.
Now, some of Lockheed's competitors are trying to knock holes in the C-130Js suitability.
They note, for example, that the C-130J was recently dropped from a competition the U.S. military has underway for a new purchase of short-haul cargo planes.
"It seems incredible to me that we're looking at planes that other nations, like the Americans, have rejected," said Dawn Black, the NDP defence critic.
The U.S. army dropped the 130J from its latest competition citing concerns that it did not meet certain technical specifications the U.S. Army required. The U.S. Air Force has several C-130Js in active service, including on combat missions. Lockheed Martin has filed an official protest with the U.S. government and wants back in the Army competition.
Key political players overseeing Canada's defence budget, including Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor and Rick Casson, the Conservative MP who chairs the House of Commons Defence Committee, have not been briefed about the C-130J's failure to make the cut in the U.S. army competition.
O'Connor though believes the U.S. Army's decision is irrelevant to the decision his government will make.
"It's up to our Canadian process to determine what qualifies and what doesn't," O'Connor said.
Dosanjh said the government ought to have given military officials a better indication of what the new planes will be required to do.
"This government has not produced a defence capability plan and one can only assess [airlift requirements] in context of a larger plan and they have not produced that plan," said Dosanjh.
Still, the C-130J has many fans in the Canadian defence establishment, not the least of which is General Rick Hillier, the chief of defence staff. Hercules pilots, too, speak warmly about its reliability and ability.
The C-130 was first produced in the early 1950s. More than 2,300 have been produced since then and are used by air forces around the world. Canada bought its first C-130 in 1960. The Canadian Air Force now has 33 C-130s, either the C-130E or the C-130H, the latest of which was purchased in 1996.
The plane is known as a tactical airlifter, moving troops and cargo around the world's hotspots. It also performs some search-and-rescue functions.
"Sometimes the right solution that comes along remains the right solution for a long time. That has been the case with the C-130," said Lockheed spokesman Peter Simmons in a telephone interview from the company's head office in Marietta, Ga. "There simply has never been an aircraft developed and brought to market that can do what the C-130 can do."
But Airbus Military says it is building a new plane, the A400M, which it hopes will be for the next 50 years what the C-130 was for the last 50 years.
Airbus Military, a business unit of European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company EADS N.V of The Netherlands, has already sold its A400M to nine countries, including some of Canada's NATO allies.
But it won't get a chance to compete for Canada's business because one of the mandatory requirements written into the Canadian tender is that Canadian officials must be able to take the proposed plane on a test flight now.
CTV News has learned that Canadian officials travelled to Georgia last week for the test flight on the C-130J.
The A400M's maiden flight won't take place until 2008, effectively taking it out of the competition.
That said, Airbus says it would still be able to deliver new planes to Canada just as fast as Lockheed will deliver new C-130Js. The Canadian contract stipulates that the first plane must be delivered within three years of the contract being signed.
Industry and government officials expect the contract to be signed sometime in the fall of 2007, which means the new planes will go into service some time in 2010.
"We hope the Canadian government will consider our plane as well," said Anne Healey of EADS Canada. "Let there be a competition. Let the best plane win."
Dosanjh, the Liberal defence critic, says the process has been tainted.
"I'm not advocating for one or the other but obviously [this] is designed to seek one particular product at the end," said Dosanjh.
Underneath the billion-dollar battle between Lockheed and Airbus is a tangled web of professional and personal relationships in Ottawa's political and lobbyist community.
For example, before he became Canada's top soldier, Hillier was on the staff of General Patrick O'Donnell. O'Donnell retired to head up a consultancy, CFN Consultants, and is now the registered lobbyist for Lockheed Martin. The firm Hill and Knowlton is the registered lobbyist for Airbus. It's chief executive is Michael Coates, who worked on the last two Conservative election campaigns, including coaching Prime Minister Harper for the leaders' debates. Gordon O'Connor, before entering politics, worked as a lobbyist at Hill and Knowlton and one of his clients was Airbus.
Both Hillier and O'Connor have scrupulously avoided even mentioning either aircraft by name in public for at least the last six months for fear there may be any accusations of conflicts-of-interest.
"Where I get involved is setting the basic requirement at the top in terms of policy and providing the money. And making sure, from my point of view, the process is fair," O'Connor said.
O'Connor, in fact, has been so sensitive about accusations of political meddling that he has refused any meetings since becoming Defence Minister with industry representatives. Industry sources say that even at a political fundraiser this week in his Ottawa-area riding, O'Connor would not engage even in informal discussions with representatives of firms that may be looking to do any kind of business with his department.
In the meantime, the bid process is in the hands of Public Works Minister Michael Fortier, a former investment banker. Like O'Connor, he, too, is eschewing any meetings with either Airbus or Lockheed.
David Akin is a Parliamentary Correspondent for CTV News
