Article content

India and Bulgaria have launched competitions to buy new fighter jets, but unlike Canada they expect the process to take just a couple of years.

The speedy purchase of much-needed jets for those countries has raised questions about why it will take the Canadian government more than 10 years to replace the military’s aging fleet of CF-18s.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Bulgaria and India are buying new fighter jets — and unlike Canada, it won't take them 10 years Back to video

India announced Tuesday it expects to choose a supplier for 200 planes and sign a deal by 2020, with a request for bids going out in 2018. In December, Bulgaria announced it was seeking bids for up to eight jets, with more to follow. The winning bid for that program will be selected in 2018.

By contrast, the Liberal government expects it will take until the end of the 2020s — or perhaps even until 2032 — before it can acquire replacements for its CF-18s.

“There is no reason why any competition should take that long,” said Conservative Party defence critic James Bezan. “Most of the work is already done and the capabilities of various planes are already known,” he added, referring to the efforts by the Canadian military over the last seven years to examine potential replacement candidates.