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Ask anyone in the Netherlands to react to the words Joint Strike Fighter and there is a good chance he or she will say 'expensive'.
The money set aside for the Joint Strike Fighter is more than the Netherlands spends on development aid on a yearly basis. It is also more money than was spent on the Betuwelijn, the new freight railway line from Rotterdam to Germany that went so much over budget that it will now never make a return on investment.
It is the uncertainty over what the Joint Strike Fighter will eventually end up costing that makes its critics draw a parallel with the Betuwelijn. The Netherlands have so far invested more than 1 billion euros in the development of the American fighter plane. But since no fixed price has been set for the JSF it is unclear if the current budget of 5.7 billion euros will suffice for the planned purchase of 85 planes. In 2010, the Dutch government will decide on the purchase of only a first batch of probably 55 planes.
There is another parallel between the JSF – or the F-35 Lightning II, as Lockheed Martin is calling it now – and the Betuwelijn: both projects came about after successful lobbying work by the industries involved. The Betuwelijn was pushed by the Rotterdam port industry; the JSF by a coalition of the Netherlands air force and Dutch defence companies united in the Netherlands Industrial Fighter Aircraft Replacement Platform (NIFARP). It was with the interests of the Dutch defence industry in mind that the second cabinet of prime minister Wim Kok in 2002 decided to invest 800 million dollars in the development of the JSF. At the time, the cabinet said the investment would pay off “to the very last cent” – but only on the condition that the Netherlands would buy the JSF for its own armed forced.
Too late to quit?
Over the next few years the Netherlands became more and more involved with the JSF. In 2006, it signed a memorandum of understanding about the production and further development of the fighter plane. According to the MoU, the Netherlands would pay a maximum of 359 million euros. Last year, the Dutch parliament agreed to Dutch participation in the 'operational test phase' of the JSF for an amount of 274 million euros. Before the end of April, parliament has to agree to the purchase of the first two JSF planes, a condition for participation in the test phase.
One could argue that this is a mere formality. After all, the Netherlands could hardly get out of the JSF project at this late stage. The defence ministry estimates that getting out now would cost the Netherlands 500 million euros.
But the JSF has nevertheless found itself at the centre of a political storm. Labour, a government coalition party, has been waging a guerrilla war against the JSF in the defence subcommittee of the Dutch parliament. And Labour's member of parliament Angelien Eijsink's stubborn fight to obtain more information about the defence ministry's handling of the JSF has gained her the respect of erstwhile sceptical colleagues. There has been increasing irritation among the members of the defence subcommittee about the way deputy defence minister Jack de Vries, a Christian Democrat, has been 'pushing' the JSF.
“The past year has been a real eye-opener for me,” Hero Brinkman of the populist Party for Freedom (PVV) recently told this newspaper. “We are being taken for a ride.”
Support eroding
The support of the PVV, an opposition party, means that Eijsink now has a majority in parliament behind her. This has allowed the defence subcommittee to demand that De Vries get a fixed, binding price offer for not just the JSF but also for the Swedish Saab Gripen, cheaper at 4.8 billion euros for 85 planes, and the Advanced F-16.
Last week, De Vries informed parliament that he is ignoring its demands. According to De Vries, it is customary to ask for a fixed price only from manufacturers who can deliver a product that meets the requirements. And according to a recent ministry comparison of the JSF with the Saab Gripen 'Next Generation' and the Advanced F-16, the latter two fighter planes are “unsuitable for the Netherlands”.
De Vries is increasingly at odds with parliament over the JSF. Even the orthodox Christian party ChristenUnie, the government's junior coalition partner that has always supported the JSF, is now openly voicing doubt. During a recent visit to the US, ChristenUnie spokesperson Joël Voordewind hinted at the possibility of buying just one test plane this year instead of two.
The question is what the cabinet's next move will be now that the decision to buy the test planes is likely to be rebuffed by parliament. The 2007 coalition agreement between the Christian Democrats, Labour and ChristenUnie merely said that the cabinet has to take a final decision about the JSF no later than 2010. Labour leader and finance minister Wouter Bos doesn't seem very interested in the JSF; he has his hands full with the recession. By the end of April we should find out if Bos is willing to risk confronting the Christian Democrats over the JSF in order to please his own rank and file.
One thing is for sure: the decision over the purchase of the test planes is more than just another step on the way to the JSF. If the Netherlands decide to buy the JSF test planes, Saab has threatened, it will withdraw the last serious contender for the F-35 from the race.
NRC International
