رد: مناقصة جديدة وصراع جديد بين المصنعين
نائب رئيس لوكهيد مارتن:
أنا متأكد بنسبة 100% ان الاف 35 يمكن ان تحقق مطالب كندنا
لكنه رفض القول ان لديه نفس الثقة ليقول ان الطائرة هي من سيفوز في كندا
سأترك السياسة للسياسيين وما نقوم به نحن هو صناعة الطائرات
هذا ملخص لأهم ما صرح به نائب رئيس الشركة
Despite flap, F-35 still best jet for Canada, company official says
OTTAWA — The vice-president of U.S. defence company Lockheed Martin says he is confident the F-35 will emerge as the best fighter jet for Canada as the Harper government looks at all options for replacing Canada’s aging CF-18s.
But Stephen O’Bryan refused to say whether he is confident the stealth fighter will be Canada’s next fighter aircraft when all is said and done.
“I am 100 per cent sure we believe the F-35 can meet Canada’s requirements,” O’Bryan told Postmedia in an interview Thursday. “But I would never speak for the Canadian government or tell the Canadian government what to do or speculate how this will come out.”
Lockheed Martin and the F-35 appeared headed for a smooth flight after the Harper government announced in July 2010 that Canada was purchasing 65 of the stealth fighters.
Instead, the project has been bombarded with cost and schedule concerns, and the auditor general raised concerns last April about the way the program — now estimated to cost $45 billion — was managed.
As a result, the government has ordered National Defence and Public Works to consider all alternatives for replacing Canada’s CF-18s.
O’Bryan said Lockheed Martin is providing information to the government and supporting the new process, including filling out a questionnaire sent to the Texas-based company and its competitors last month.
“We’re going to support the Canadian process,” O’Bryan said at Lockheed Martin’s new national office in downtown Ottawa only blocks from Parliament Hill.
“We understand that the procurement of a fighter airplane is an important national security decision and we’ll support it fully.”
He maintained that much of the information about cost overruns and schedule delays are “myth,” and that the program is moving along well.
He pointed to the U.S. government’s recent contract with Lockheed Martin for 32 F-35s at a total cost of $3.8 billion — representing a four per cent decrease in price per aircraft from the previous batch the Pentagon bought — as proof the program is moving in the right direction.
But 30 months after Defence Minister Peter MacKay climbed into the cockpit of a mock F-35 during an event announcing Canada’s intention to purchase the stealth fighter, O’Bryan would not say whether he believed the aircraft would still succeed the CF-18.
“I’m confident in the capabilities of the F-35, and I’m confident when it is an open and transparent process … it will show its capabilities, it will show its life-cycle costs to be superior to any of the other competitors,” he said.
“Politics I’ll leave to politicians …. What we do is build airplanes.”
The stealth fighter project has emerged as a major problem for the Harper government, with some saying it has hurt the Conservatives’ reputation as responsible economic managers.
The Harper government promised to restart its plan to replace Canada’s CF-18 fighter jets, but opposition parties and some analysts say the field remains heavily slanted in favour of the F-35.
In an interview last month, former military procurement chief Dan Ross told Postmedia he was confident the F-35 would emerge as Canada’s next fighter aircraft as long as politics don’t get in the way.
The F-35′s main competitors are the Boeing Super Hornet, the Eurofighter Typhoon, the Saab Gripen and Dassault Rafale.
Defence officials are also looking at the pros and cons of extending the CF-18s’ life expectancy beyond 2020.
مصدر
Despite flap, F-35 still best jet for Canada, company official says
