By Randall Palmer
OTTAWA, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Canada's incoming Liberalgovernment intends to completely restart the competition forfighter jets to replace its aging CF-18s, rather than relying onthe proposals already made under the outgoing Conservatives, aLiberal source said on Monday.
He said the Liberals, who declared during their successfulelection campaign that they would not buy Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 stealth fighters, would put out a new "request forproposals," with a redesigned list of what the new planes willbe required to do.
"We're going to put together the requirements we have foraircraft," said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity. "I don't think we trust the (Conservative) government'srequirements."
The Liberals take power on Nov. 4, when the new ministers ofdefense and public works will be named.
Ruling out the F-35 left open the theoretical possibility ofgoing ahead with the best of the remaining contenders on thebasis of the bids already submitted, but the source made clearthe new government would instead hit the reset button.
This means it could take years to make a choice. The sourcesaid he expected the decision would be made within the firstterm of Prime Minister-designate Justin Trudeau, which ends inOctober 2019.
A leading contender has always been considered to be BoeingCo's F/A-18E/F fighters, but they are expected to endproduction by 2019, possibly earlier, so Canada would need tomove relatively fast if it wanted those.
Boeing and Lockheed lobbyists have often referred to thebenefit of having planes used by the United States, forinteroperability, but the Liberal source said different alliedplanes operate together without big problems.
Trudeau shook up the campaign and the aerospace industrywith his Sept. 20 announcement that he would not buy F-35s. He said he expected this to yield savings,which he would apply to naval ships.
The other contenders in the Conservative government'scompetition were Dassault Aviation SA's Rafale and theEurofighter Typhoon - jointly made by BAE Systems PLC,Finmeccanica SpA and Airbus Group.
Trudeau had also named Saab AB's Gripen as apotential contender, even though the Swedish firm had alreadyeffectively ruled itself out of the current competition. (Reporting by Randall Palmer; Editing by Ken Wills)