Evidence of meeting #37 for National Defence in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was airplanes.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:55 p.m.
Executive Vice-President and General Manager, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program Integration, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company
As I said in my remarks, right now I don't see any program that is recapitalizing the aerospace and defence industry other than this one.
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Maxime Bernier
Thank you.
I'm going to give the floor to Mr. Bachand for three minutes.
4:55 p.m.
Bloc
Claude Bachand Bloc Saint-Jean, QC
Mr. Burbage, I want this to be clear. With respect to the $12 billion worth of economic spinoffs, are you basing your calculation on 3,000, 4,000 or 5,000 platforms?
4:55 p.m.
Executive Vice-President and General Manager, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program Integration, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company
We calculate our industrial estimates based on the U.S. and the partner procurement. The number we've been using is about 3,100 airplanes. The partners sometimes change their numbers. Last year, Canada changed from 80 to 65. Some changes are occurring within those numbers. As those numbers change, the number moves a little bit, but our calculation is based on roughly 3,100 airplanes.
5 p.m.
Bloc
Claude Bachand Bloc Saint-Jean, QC
Thank you very much.
What do you say to Eurofighter which claims that, in a computer-simulated combat scenario with the support of an airborne warning and control system, four Eurofighter aircraft can beat eight F-35s in combat? If that isn't true, could you provide us with the results of your simulations? Have you done simulations?
5 p.m.
Executive Vice-President and General Manager, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program Integration, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company
We don't do simulations. Our government does simulations. The U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Marine Corps do simulations. I'm sure they'd be happy to show you their results with the Eurofighter.
5 p.m.
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
5 p.m.
Bloc
5 p.m.
Executive Vice-President and General Manager, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program Integration, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company
Like I said, that's a government-to-government issue. Your government can certainly see those.
In fact, we don't develop our capabilities in a vacuum. Your pilots have spent quite a bit of time in Fort Worth flying in our simulators in an advanced-threat scenario that you wouldn't fly today's airplanes in.
5 p.m.
Bloc
Claude Bachand Bloc Saint-Jean, QC
Fine, thank you.
Also, I don't know whether you read the article that appeared in Bloomberg Businessweek yesterday, but it mentions that the American Senate and Congress have cut the budget for the purchase of 43 jets. They have limited the number to 13 jets for now, until the testing is done. Did you read that article?
5 p.m.
Executive Vice-President and General Manager, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program Integration, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company
I don't know if you've got the numbers right with what she said.
I didn't, but I worked my Congress just like I'm here today, and I've been with all four of the defence committees. There is a position that's been taken by one of the committees to reduce the number from 42 to 32—not to 13, but to 32.
5 p.m.
Bloc
Claude Bachand Bloc Saint-Jean, QC
Okay. Well, they say 13 here. I'll show you the article after this.
5 p.m.
Executive Vice-President and General Manager, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program Integration, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company
Bloomberg is often—
5 p.m.
Executive Vice-President and General Manager, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program Integration, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company
It often has a problem.
5 p.m.
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
5 p.m.
Executive Vice-President and General Manager, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program Integration, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company
It's 42 and 32, okay, and there's a conference that will occur between the committees that will decide the final number. That has not been decided yet.
5 p.m.
Bloc
Claude Bachand Bloc Saint-Jean, QC
In the article, it says that the F-35 program is four years behind. Can you confirm that?
5 p.m.
Executive Vice-President and General Manager, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program Integration, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company
I don't know how to measure that. I don't know what dates they're referring to.
Have we had some delays in the program? Yes, we have. They've been well publicized. We went through a year-and-a-half engineering review to reduce the weight on the STOVL airplane. That added time to the original schedule.
I don't recognize the number of four years. I've seen it in their writing, but I don't know what they're referring to.
But there is no delay on the Canadian airplanes, I can tell you that for sure.
5 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Maxime Bernier
Thank you very much.
I will give the floor to Mr. Harris for two minutes.
5 p.m.
NDP
Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
On the issue of sustainment, last week we had two representatives of aerospace unions to testify and they were very concerned, obviously, about their members and jobs. But they talked about sustainment and keeping the planes in the air. It was very important to them, as I think it is to probably many Canadians from a sovereignty point of view, that if there are airplanes, if we buy them, the work on keeping those planes in the air would be done in Canada.
Is there anything in your program that would take away from that? Could some other company get the contract from you folks? Or are there other issues with respect to access to all the software data and the language? Are there any restrictions on your program?
5 p.m.
Executive Vice-President and General Manager, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program Integration, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company
All those are codified in government-to-government agreements and they are fully known to the Ministry of Defence. There are no restrictions to maintaining the airplane in Canada. Canada is a sovereign nation. Canada wants to maintain its own airplanes. There is not a problem with that.
5 p.m.
NDP
Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL
With respect to the codes, all the codes for software, is that kept by the American government or is it available to the partners?
