DND boss expressed worries to U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee chair

It is tough to be DND minister Mackay. Some people are so arrogant they will do anything not to be proven wrong.

See this Canadian article (Google translate: French-to-English).

MacKay has openly pleaded with U.S. Senator McCain claiming that the F-35 is the only solution for Canada. It is unfortunate that all this time, MacKay has been so poorly advised by his staff.

Ottawa- Fearing political fallout from the release of Republican Senator John McCain against cost overruns associated with construction of the F-35, Defence Minister Peter MacKay called the American politician, last June, to sing the praises of this device that wish to buy Canada, the United States and other allies.

The call from the Minister MacKay occurred about two weeks after striking the statements of Senator McCain before the committee of the Senate Armed Services to study the viability of the purchase of these stealth aircraft to be built by U.S. firm Lockheed Martin.

Mr. McCain has specifically stated that the Pentagon should abandon the acquisition program of approximately 2400 units given the explosion of construction costs and failures in the development of these devices.

Another problem is Canada has to stick to a rigid budget based on erroneous assumptions like this:

In Canada, the Harper government maintains that it will pay on average $ 75 million per aircraft. It then plans to spend $ 7 billion for aircraft maintenance for two decades. But many believe that the unit cost will be much higher - from 110 to 135 million.

Based on current USAF costing issues, Canada will be luck to afford 20 jets. And what they buy will be riddled with mistakes.

Or, they can come up with a credible plan-B. I wonder if MacKay has read this letter?