Lockheed welcomes Canada shift toward "more choices" for fighters

RAF FAIRFORD, England, July 7 (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT)
Corp LMT.N on Thursday welcomed comments suggesting Canada
would open a new competition for replacing its current fleet of
aging CF-18 Hornets, instead of simply buying Boeing (NYSE:BA) Co BA.N
F/A-18E/F Super Hornets to meet its needs.
Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan told Canada's Globe
and Mail newspaper the government would change requirements for
the new fighter jets, announced by the previous government, to
allow for "more choices."
His comments in an interview published on Thursday suggested
that Canada could start a fresh competition, including the F-35.
Canada helped fund development of the F-35 fighter but the
Liberal government, which took power in late 2015, promised
during its campaign in last year's election that it would not
buy F-35 jets. This led to reports it would buy Super Hornets
and forgo a competition.
Canadian officials have since softened their tone, but no
details of a competition have been released.
Lockheed told Reuters last month that it was studying
whether to shift work on its multibillion-dollar F-35 fighter
jet away from Canadian firms amid the uncertainty over Ottawa's
plans to buy the jet.
Canadian firms would account for development and production
work on the F-35 program worth about $1 billion by the end of
2016.
Jeff Babione, Lockheed's F-35 program manager told reporters
on Thursday he believed that Canada would ultimately have a new
competition that included the F-35.
"We love to tell our story. They probably don't fully
appreciate what the F-35 can do," Babione said.
He said he welcomed the latest comments from the Canadian
government, but said the Canadian government had not contacted
Lockheed directly.
Lockheed officials said they expected discussions to occur
in the near future.
Babione said Lockheed had begun looking at which firms could
take over the work now done by Canadian firms, but had not made
any firm decisions. A decision by Canada to buy Super Hornets
would make it difficult to keep Canadian firms engaged in the
program, he said.