# 10 CF-5 Jets On The Block After $300 Million In Upgrades
Midway through a costly modernization program, the federal government is taking a heavy loss after putting the remaining squadron of Canada's CF-5 jet fighters on the block.
The 27 year-old jets provided lead-in training for pilots who graduate to the much more complex and powerful CF-18 jet fighters. The majority of the 62 jets received structural and electronic upgrades in the late 1980s, including the addition of a holographic "heads-up" display.
The Department of National Defence says the upgrade program, performed by Bristol Aerospace of Winnipeg, amounted to $79 million. Bristol President Keith Burrows maintained the figure was closer to $250 to $300 million, or up to $8.3 million per jet. In accordance with a House of Commons defence review committee recommendation, the federal government slashed funding to the military in its 1995 budget. Seven CF-18 squadrons would be reduced to two or three. Consequently, as Brigadier-General Donald McKay (ret.), an aide to the commander of Air Command in Winnipeg, pointed out, "to maintain a fighter lead-in squadron to cater to the low number of CF-18 pilots ... is not cost-effective."
That decision could bring problems of its own, however, Col. Sean Henry (ret.), an Ottawa-based defence analyst, said going straight from the Tutor training jet to the CF-18 could lead to more crashes as it did in Australia when that country eliminated its lead-in fighter squadron.
With modifications still underway on 10 CF-5s, the government announced the jets would be put on the auction block. Newly modified CF-5s that were freshly rolling out of Bristol Aerospace's Winnipeg facility at the time were being flown straight to Trenton to be sold. "Ottawa is rumored to be seeking $3 million per jet, or 35-cents for each dollar spent on upgrading," Koch wrote.
A proposed sale to Turkey still hasn't gone through, according to an official in NDP MP Svend Robinson's office.
Some analysts thought the squadron and by extension, the money could have been saved by contracting out flying services to other countries which use the CF-18 Hornet.
Source:
€ The Moose hits the ground, Western Report, June 19, 1995 (George Koch)
PCC Researcher: Ron Bencze
Summary of Coverage
The focus of the coverage of the potential sale of the CF-5s was the implications of selling them to Turkey. Most of the major national and regional media carried at least one story on this issue (such as The Ottawa Citizen, Edmonton Journal, Vancouver Sun, Winnipeg Free Press), as did the CTV National News ‹ but virtually nothing on the key aspect of the nominated story. The nominated story appeared in Western Report. We found no CBC-Radio coverage of this aspect of the proposed sale.