Ministry denies Air Force’s price estimate for upgrading its Hornet fighter jets

Price of conversion of interceptors into assault fighters clarified to MPs

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The Ministry of Defence has declared incorrect the information, carried by Helsingin Sanomat and others on Thursday, according to which the modernisation programme of the Air Force F/A-18 Hornets and turning them into assault fighters would come with a price tag of EUR 1.6 billion.
     
According to the Ministry’s announcement, the sum would be just over a billion.
      Helsingin Sanomat reported on Thursday morning of the estimate the paper had been quoted by the Air Force, according to which the first phase of the upgrading programme would cost EUR 325 million and the second phase around EUR 1.3 billion. The Ministry of Defence disagrees with the latter estimate.
      The Defence Ministry calculates that the second phase, which includes for instance the acquisition of the air-to-ground weapon systems, would cost no more than EUR 722.4 million. Hence the total sum of the updating project would be EUR 1,047 million.
     
According to the negotiating government official Jari Takanen this is the “ceiling sum”, under which all related purchases must be included. The sum consists of a mandate allocated by the Parliament in 2007, appropriations included in next year’s budget, and development programmes that have not yet been included in any budget.
      Takanen emphasises that the procurements fit within the Ministry of Defence’s budget frame.
      The conversion of the Hornets into assault jets was sanctioned in the 2004 Parliamentary defence report.
     
The figures were also explained on Thursday to the Parliamentary Defence Committee led by vice-chairman Olli Nepponen (Nat. Coalition Party).
      From next year’s budget proposal it is not possible to calculate the project’s total sum. Nepponen has therefore called in experts to look into the budget figures at the Standing Committee of Supply that he heads. The committee prepares the defence budget for Parliament to decide on.
     
Nepponen himself estimates that Parliament has been sufficiently informed of the matter. The Social Democratic Party’s group leader in the Defence Committee Reijo Laitinen, in turn, is of the opinion that not all information about the cost of the acquisitions has been shared with the committee members.
      Jaakko Laakso, head of the Left Alliance members in the committee, points out that he warned of the overheads already in his objection included in the 2004 report, in which he opposed the entire project.
      Pekka Haavisto, who heads the Green League representatives in the committee, in turn, was unable to say whether or not he had received enough information concerning the costs.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Mid-Life update of Hornets is second-largest weapons deal in Finnish military history (2.10.2008)

Helsingin Sanomat