In a deal that analysts estimate might exceed €1 billion, Tánaiste and Defence Minister Simon Harris seek to purchase fighter planes with missiles for the Air Corps.
The head of Fine Gael stated on Friday that Ireland must strengthen its defences, including by purchasing fighter planes, because the world is becoming more unstable.
“I am convinced of that case,” he said during a visit to the Defence Forces’ Curragh Camp in Co Kildare when asked if it was time for the Air Corps to get jets. “The solemn duty of any government is to be able to protect their people and their country,” he added.
Since the Air Corps only possesses weakly equipped PC9 turbo-prop aircraft, which are not jets and cannot fly at high speeds or altitudes, the Defence Forces now lack a means of protecting Irish airspace. Mr. Harris, however, claims he now thinks the Air Corps should be outfitted with cutting-edge fighter planes that can patrol and defend our skies in order to alter that.
But according to analysts, the taxpayer would bear a hefty price for such a scheme, which is expected to take at least five years to implement. According to them, each jet would probably cost at least €60 million, and the Air Corps would anticipate buying 12 to 16. That would indicate a possible cost of almost €1 billion.
Another possibility, according to insiders, would be for Ireland to lease a fighter squadron, which would come with an annual cost of about €80 million.
One of the main recommendations of the 2022 Commission on the Defence Forces, an independent, international organisation that looked at Ireland’s ability to handle its own security, was to buy or lease jet fighters.
The government agreed to its suggested Level of Ambition Two, or LOA2, which does not involve the supply of fighter planes but calls for the upgrade of other defence forces components by 2028.
The Air Corps will also be called the Irish Air Force, and jets were a fundamental component of the higher, Level of Ambition Three. As outlined in the government agenda, Mr. Harris now wants Ireland to accomplish LOA2 before moving on to LOA3.
Additionally, he stated on Friday that he has now directed top military troops and Department of Defence officials to determine the cost to the taxpayer of switching to LOA3.
He said: “I think we are living in a geo security, geo political environment that is volatile, that is different and we have a lot of catching up to do, I believe, in terms of our defence infrastructure. We do that from a position of being militarily neutral but we also do it from a position of wanting to deter and detect,” reports The Mirror.
He said: “It is about making sure we have the capabilities as a country to detect and indeed to deter and also then to be able to decide as a country what to do in terms of information sharing with what we detect. They are sensible things for any modern European country to do, in fact it is a very important step,” reports The Mirror.
But the Tánaiste added that the process of improving our defences would take several years. He said: “We are being very clear. It is about delivering Level of Ambition Two and then as our programme for government said, about moving towards Level of Ambition three,” reports The Mirror.
“What I have asked within days of taking office, my own officials in collaboration with the Defence Forces to begin to analyse what that transition from LOA2 to LOA3 would look like over time. But I need to be clear with people on this: this is a journey. It is a process. Nobody is suggesting, least of all me, that we are going to jump from here to here,” reports The Mirror.
But he added: “What I want people in this country to know, what I want our Defence Forces to know, indeed what I want other European Union countries to know is that the scale of our ambition does not stop at Level Two,” reports The Mirror.
He said that he thought the Irish public supported his proposal to strengthen our defences, particularly in light of the 2021 HSE cyberattack, which devastated the healthcare sector and was attributed to Russian hackers.
He said: “Do I believe we live in a world which is much more volatile and requires all countries to take their defence and security much more seriously? I do. Do I believe that we will live in a world that is obviously seeing new types of threats and new frequency of threats? I do. I think the people of this country, as is often the case, are ahead of the policy debate. I think the people of this country understand the hybrid threats, understand the cyber attacks that we and others have experienced,” reports The Mirror.
“They know what it was like when the Health Service was shut down. They know that we are living in a world where just because you are an island over here doesn’t mean that you are immune from those threats. We are now living in a continent where there is a war on that continent. It is a complex, evolving security environment. The solemn duty of any government is to be able to protect their people and their country,” reports The Mirror.
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