Canada set to spend C$15 billion on military

OTTAWA, June 22 (Reuters) The Canadian government will unveil plans next week to boost the country's armed forces by buying transport aircraft, helicopters, ships and trucks worth a total of C billion (13.4 billion US dollars), the Canadian Broadcasting Corp said.

Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper campaigned ahead of the Jan. 23 election on a promise to boost the military, which complained its equipment had become badly outdated during ''a decade of darkness'' under the previous Liberal government.

In a report late on Wednesday, CBC said Harper would announce a competition worth C.6 billion next Thursday to replace Canada's aged fleet of Hercules transport aircraft.

The main options are Lockheed Martin's revamped C130J Hercules and the Airbus A400M, a plane that will not come into service before 2010.

A spokesman for Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor declined to comment on the report, saying: ''Our new government is committed to ensuring that we fund the military and give them the equipment they need to do the jobs we ask them to do.'' The Conservatives promise to boost the annual defense budget by a total of C.3 billion over the next five years to reach C.3 billion by 2011.

But a report by the Senate's defense committee, which was released today, said the government was underestimating the cost of new equipment and said the annual defense budget should be C billion.

''Current plans are not affordable with the money promised to date,'' the committee concluded.

CBC said Harper would also promise to buy four giant Boeing C-17 transport aircraft for around C