Tally Ho! Gadget sweet.Hotdog red.

Yes, I know that title is something akin to Greek to most readers. Some will actually understand it. Doesn't matter though, it makes about as much sense as the one that appeared in the National Post on Wednesday.

Mark Collins: Canada buys an attack plane for defence

Which then goes on to cherry-pick bits and pieces of information from the US Navy and Royal Navy about how the future employment of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter involves First Day Strike operations etc, etc.

Wonderful.

Here's a bit of news for the National Post and the editor who allowed that bit of spoiled milk to seep through.

1. The Canadian Air Force CF-188/CF-18A, acquired by the Liberal government of Pierre Trudeau, is actually the F/A-18A, a strike aircraft, originally designed and built for the US Navy. The "A" part of F/A designates it as an attack aircraft.

2. The giveaway, (if there was ever a need for one), is in the public nomenclature of the F-35. It's in the shiny brochures and everything: Joint Strike Fighter, just in case people were confused about what "JSF" actually meant.

This is in no way intended to approve or condemn the proposed purchase of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. But Collins missed the mark, if he actually had one, by a Saskatchewan section. Whatever is chosen to replace our current multi-role combat aircraft should also be a multi-role combat aircraft.

There is amusement in the comments section to the Natty Post article where he is roundly thrashed by those who would call him a liberal.

Maybe Kelly McParland has an agenda of which we are not aware.

As an added bonus... Collins authoritatively goes on to tell us about the radar suite of a TU-95H. Cool! How about if he gives us the EW and ECM capabilities while he's at it. OK. Maybe just the PRF of their targeting radar.