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It's actually way worse than that when you consider opportunity cost. The only practical way to pull off a dual fleet is to buy a larger fleet. So in addition to the additional burden from duplication, more resources go to simply fielding more. This takes away capital and personnel from the...

China basically decided that it was a "Near-Arctic state". Whatever the heck that means. They have decided that they now have Arctic interests and get to play. For now, a lot of it is co-operating with Russia. But I think we should anticipate Chinese naval forces acting independently in the...

Yep. F-35s use MADL. Everybody else on Link 16. So you need a translator (some kind of AEWC or BACN) just to integrate Gripens and F-35s. Oh and the Saab AEWC candidate isn't MADL capable.

The majority of the signature reduction on VLO aircraft come from three specific things: 1) Internal carriage of stores. 2) S ducting of engine intakes so turbines are not in view. 3) Aircraft design aligning seams (parallel lines for control surfaces, panel mounts, etc.) and surface tangents...

You're not understanding how ops is done here. First of all, the launch is cued by some ISR. Be that satellites, airborne radar, SIGINT, or some dude calling in on a payphone outside Engels. Next, with awareness of what is coming, sufficient fighters are launched and others cued for readiness...

Thank you. People do not understand how much gas "Fat Amy" holds. And they don't realize how much range is eaten up by external drag on stores. I think an F-35 with internal carriage only has the same range as the CF-18 with drop tank or just about close. While also having a much lower...

Won't even get to that point in near-peer short of a world war. Either the politicians will get cold feet to deploy when they see the threat assessment and/or predicted losses, or quite simply theatre entry standards might say, "Nope. You're not joining the party unless you bring xyz to the...

People get way too wrapped up in the current threat. They keep forgetting that this thing will be in service for 30-40 years, after 2030. Funny isn't it. Even on this forum where so many will argue for the heaviest armour, risking pilots is not seen as a big deal. Realistically, what it...

People really need to stop asserting things confidently that they have no clue about.

People are making two mistakes here. 1) Massively discounting adversary capability. The Pakistani example is instructive. It's a 4th gen aircraft and export grade BVRAAM all teamed up with an older AEW aircraft. And yet they demonstrated a kill chain we would not be able to do right now...

The 330s also offload a lot more fuel. The actual increase in offload capacity is 800%.

Ummm no. That's how BVR combat works. It's a trade between detectability and the range of the weapons. If your WEZ is inside the adversary effective radar range (based on RCS) and their WEZ, you'll be in trouble. The ideal scenario is a small RCS that you can get close enough to massively...

Over what time horizon? This is the problem with these discussions. Everybody looks at the news today and thinks the Gripen will be fine. Meanwhile the Air Staff is looking at data points like this"...

Those Gripen numbers are not for the Super Gripens they want to sell us. And the F-35 cpfh has come down over time. The real gap will be narrower and will narrow every year. It's also a question of what you get for money. In the age of cheap to operate drones, there's no point operating...

Yes and no. We're already building infrastructure at both bases and the FOBs to be F-35 ready. So I am not sure how much savings there is on that side. Next, as we saw with the Hornet, the smaller user community drives costs on the back half of life. The RCAF would have had an easier time if...

I believe the old plan of 65 had OTU in the US. Not 100%. @SupersonicMax might know more. The current plan for 88 includes an OTU. I am not sure how the current fleet plan works. If we buy 40, I would think we would want to just use the OTU in the US. But I am not sure the current climate...

40 is more like two line squadrons and an OTU (call it a third squadron if you want). With some additional frames for the maintenance pipeline. If there's 40 frames, they are all going in one base. Cold Lake.

The first 16 are paid for. First 4 are coming into service this year. The remaining 12 are being delivered over the next two years. Really, this is about how many we take in each year from 2029 onwards. The payments for those aircraft are probably due Fall 2026 to early 2027. We probably...

They are all in the same boat as us. Nope. There's no point playing their hand until they can see what LockMart can offer. I'm no fan of the Gripen. But if the government is going down this path, they might as well leverage as much as they can.

1) Grouping all rotary wing together is a bit strange. It's like grouping Hornets with Hercs and asking why we can't have one common fixed wing type. 2) Nevertheless, the RCAF has actually sought some increased helicopter fleet commonality. That's what the cancelled EH-101 purchase was about...