OTTAWA – Federal officials told Finance Minister Bill Morneau last year that it would probably be cheaper to buy Super Hornet fighter jets than F-35 stealth fighters.
The cost of each warplane has been sharply debated over the years, and the uncertainty is evident in the briefing note presented to Morneau in August.
But using publicly available information, officials pegged the average cost of a Super Hornet at between $88 million and $110 million.
That’s compared with between $110 million and $144 million for an F-35.
Officials cautioned that the numbers were only estimates, and the actual cost to Canada would depend on a number of factors, such as the exchange rate and what was included.
The Liberal government plans to buy 18 Super Hornets on an interim basis before replacing Canada’s aging CF-18s by way of a full bidding competition.
The figures suggest buying those Super Hornets would cost between $1.5 billion and $2 billion.
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