ONE of the main ways Stephen Harper, Canada’s Conservative prime minister, has sought to distinguish himself from his Liberal predecessors is by building a modern army ready to fight, rather than merely for peacekeeping. In the 2011 election campaign he promised to fulfil a C$15 billion ($15 billion) contract for 65 F-35 fighter aircraft despite a tough economy. In October he announced Canada’s biggest-ever arms order, for naval and coastguard ships costing C$35 billion. The structure of the procurement was widely praised for avoiding political interference.

But the glow has not lasted. In April Canada’s auditor-general found that the government had misled Parliament, deliberately underestimating the price of the F-35s by almost C$10 billion, by excluding replacement aircraft, upgrades and training and maintenance costs. On July 4th Mr Harper named a new junior minister at the defence department as the deal’s spokesman. But procurement remains awkwardly split between the defence and public-works ministries. One result was that last year the military forfeited C$600m allocated for equipment but not spent.

Last month Walter Natynczyk, the outgoing chief of the defence staff, criticised a delay in signing detailed contracts for the shipbuilding scheme. The navy fears it will fall victim to a C$3.5 billion cut in defence spending over the next seven years. On July 11th the armed forces were given new cause to worry, when the army scrapped bidding on a C$800m lorry contract for lack of funds, minutes before the deadline.

Delays are nothing new. The first of seven Arctic patrol ships Mr Harper ordered is three years behind its delivery date. Some destroyers will be over 40 years old when they begin to be retired in 2017. Replacements for Sea King helicopters ordered for delivery in 2008 have still not arrived. And bidding has not yet begun on a C$3.1 billion plan to replace fixed-wing search-and-rescue aircraft, first mooted a decade ago.

In response to the auditor’s report, the government’s administrative arm last month called for proposals for an independent assessment of military-costing procedures and verification of the latest F-35 cost estimates. This is likely to be completed later this year, when a parliamentary committee resumes hearings on the F-35s. The opposition scents a further chance to embarrass the government on an issue that Mr Harper has sought to make his own.