Canada's new chief of defence staff has contradicted Defence Minister Peter MacKay by suggesting that other fighter jets do offer some of the stealth capabilities the military needs. Tom Lawson said during testimony Thursday before the Commons defence committee about the planned $25-billion purchase that most fighter jets offer some degree of stealth capability, including Canada's aging fleet of CF-18s. Boeing's Super Hornet and the Eurofighter Typhoon have been suggested as alternatives to Lockheed Martin's F-35, which until now appeared to be the only fighter jet Canada was considering. Looks like he’s be looking for a new job now. Harper's insider trading jets don’t work in the arctic so they are not for protecting Canada.
I have the lucky benefit here of studying military aviation all my life. The F-35 is a very bad program, and the aircraft is far from any production. It is NOT the right aircraft for Canada, all things considered. Most in the aviation community feel this way.
ReplyDeleteIncredibly, the all-up cost for the USA, @ about 1300 units, looks to be over 1.1 Trillion dollars! That's Trillion!
My friends and I advocate, (for the already in-house advantage), of going SuperHornet Blocks E/F. We have that knowledge, pilot experience & maintenance basis already. They would've been great for Canada, F-35 is bad for Canada.
This new article from the great Foreign Policy mag., just nails the disastrous F-35:
ReplyDelete"The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is a "monster" of a program and some of its toughest developmental challenges may still be ahead of it, said deputy JSF program manager Air Force Maj. Gen. Christopher Bogdan today, in refreshingly frank discussion of the biggest weapons buy in Pentagon history. In particular, those challenges revolve around software delays, a glitchy helmet, and fixing a toxic-sounding relationship between the Pentagon and F-35 maker Lockheed Martin."
http://tinyurl.com/9sl8fkw (ForeignPolicy)
"Federal government cancels F-35 fighter purchase."
ReplyDeleteOTTAWA — "The F-35 jet fighter purchase, the most persistent thorn in the federal government’s side and the subject of a devastating auditor-general’s report last spring, is dead."
"Faced with the imminent release of an audit by accountants KPMG that will push the total projected life-cycle costs of the aircraft above $30 billion, the operations committee of the federal Cabinet decided to scrap the controversial sole-source program and go back to the drawing board, a source familiar with the decision said."
http://tinyurl.com/bu3ocmn (OtttawaCitizen)
I saw that. I’m a bit skeptical as to what go back to the drawing board means but it is a good sign. We need some jets. The question is how many and what kind. Buying jets that can’t be used in the arctic to protect Canada is irresponsible. So is spending billions on a whole fleet of jets while we cut back soldiers wages and benefits as well as the coast guard.
ReplyDelete