ACCORDING TO THE TORONTO STAR'S Allan Woods:OTTAWA—Scrapping a plan to purchase American fighter jets risks leaving the Canadian Air Force grounded in 2020, the defence minister says.
Peter MacKay says opposition to the purchase of 65 F-35 jets, which are experiencing delays and cost overruns, could result in an “operational gap” when the current fleet of fighter jets are pulled from service because there is no guarantee a replacement could be found on time.
"because there is no guarantee a replacement could be found on time" Gee — if we offered coin of the realm to Russia, I wonder how fast we could get a bunch of Sukhois?
I'll bet the Brits could guarantee us oodles of Typhoons by 2020. So could the French with their Rafale. Or Boeing with the new version F-15 (which actually makes a lot of sense in the Canadian north). Besides, who is actually promising the F-35 will still be even remotely stealthy by 2020? Nobody, because it won't.
ReplyDeleteIf there is a gap (which there isn't), it is entirely the fault of this government for irresponsibly committing itself to such a faulty project.
ReplyDeleteHe likes the "time dilator" feature of the F-35. Crossing the border from BC to California appears, in cockpit time, to be several minutes, while to an observer on earth it would be a blink of an eye.
ReplyDeletePerhaps being geography challenged is the real reason things didn't work out so well with Belinda...
Exsqueeze me, but exactly how is opposition to the purchase going to slow production? They are either built on time or they aren't -- people bitch about it doesn't slow the manufacturing process any. I'd suggest they start looking for a fleet of Typhoons or F-15s or a way to refurbish the current F-18 or something in the meantime, because I suspect the F-35 may be a long long time coming.
ReplyDelete"They are either built on time or they aren't -- people bitch about it doesn't slow the manufacturing process any."
ReplyDeleteWe have to support the production-line workers! If we hurt their morale, they won't be able to build our planes as effectively.
I seem to recall that when the purchase of the CF-18 was being discussed, one of the reasons to choose the Hornet was that it was a twin-engined aircraft.
ReplyDeleteBecause on those long, arctic patrols if you lost an engine in an F-16 or an F35, you'd be punching out and walking home across the pack ice.
The Eurofighter Typhoon, the Sukhoi PAK FA, the upgraded F-15, there are options out there that would serve our forces better than the F-35.
We have no serious need of a stealthy aircraft, what we need is an affordable long-range fighter with ground attack capabilities to support our troops overseas and guarantee our borders.
Here's a thought: why don't we talk to china about buying into the J-20 project?