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I think the timelines/strategic priorities are not as serious as they may seem. I'm not sure about the Griffins (which again is a different capability to the Chinook- perhaps others here are better placed to speak about this), but FWSAR is something you'll see in the next five years. The...

The F-35A drogue installation was canned something like three years ago since we were going to be the only customer and assumed the R&D and support cost burden. Most choices for Canada's next generation fighter, with the exception of the Gripen and Super Hornet would reduce, but not eliminate...

AFAIK, our tanker fleet is a marginal cost increase over our other aircraft... both tanker types are also used in their original roles (I'm not sure if the 150's cargo hold can be converted back however). Still its some relatively small maintenance (at least for the 130T) and training to keep...

The CC-150Ts are primarily used for foreign ops: getting our fighters to locations abroad and adding to the tanker pool in theatre (if required). It provides a fair bit of flexibility for the RCAF, as during those times allies may not have excess capacity to assist Canada. However since there...

The question is whether you can find it. Your best chance of doing that is with a fleet of networked F-35s, as you have the most advanced sensor platform (with EOTS and APG-81), as well as sensor fusion. The latter is critical. Current generation of systems basically transfers plots and tracks...

The earliest any purchase would happen is 2018, and that assumes that the new government makes an immediate decision to go to competition after the election and ignore the National Fighter Procurement Secretariat's likely recommendation to go with the F-35 according to the MOU. The...

It probably won't add that much life at all. As I mentioned earlier, the demand far outstrips airlift capacity: there just is too many demands on the fleet for even five aircraft to meet: only at six might the load start to slacken for the fleet. This typical breakdown for the fleet state at any...

From what I know (and admittedly, I'm not as familiar with their tempo as with other airforce assets), the tasking of our C-17 fleet is one that there is a near infinite amount of work that could be accomplished with them. Thus adding another aircraft might not decrease the amount of work...

The reality is that the F-35's low observability features are not the main cost driver: its avionics. Structure is about 15~25% of an aircraft's cost.... Avionics is 40% and upwards. Most of the aircraft's development cost and time has gone into the programming side. Where the F-35 will be...

At this point in time, its very unlikely any aircraft is cheaper than the F-35 due to production scales. I can go into this further, but the other aircraft are not even close to the F-35 in terms of industrial scale. The Eurofighter and Rafale lines are basically producing 2 to 4 aircraft a...

Oh it will definitely streamline the data being presented and reduce the pilot's workload. The system will categorize information by threat level or importance. That was a major objective of the development. The avionics will also aid in earlier identification, as the aircraft can take various...

Sorry, I'm not quite following here... do you mean to suggest that having a second occupant basically means that you can have greater situational awareness, which can replicate some the sensor fusion advantages of the F-35's avionics' suite? If that's the case its no and yes. Much of the sensor...

ITs a two part problem. One, its the mass amount of data generated organically within the aircraft,... the fact that you have MADL streaming in additional data just adds to it. Buses are the most obvious issue since they are the backbone for the avionics, but in reality almost everything would...

The Super Hornet avionics isn't upgradable to anywhere close to the F-35 without a massive engineering effort. In short, it would likely be cheaper to make it a low observable aircraft than upgrade the F/A-18E architecture to the level of the F-35 (remember avionics is about 50% of the F-35's...

As I linked to the above post, I utilized the December 2011 Selected Acquisition report to Congress... the newest one available to the public on the CH-47F program. 2005 is the cost's baseline year so I had to use a cost inflator there: US programs generally use Baseline years in order to make...

The fleet I looked at were the eight new build ones they recently procured to bring the fleet to 68 or 69... I believe it included the digitized AFCS, as the P-1 I linked states these aircraft are to the latest MH-47G standard. I should say that this analysis is by no means perfect and would...

That's precisely what I'm getting at. I  have no doubt that this is an excellent helicopter; we basically bought the US special forces version. Its the management of it that I have issue with.

Frankly Journeyman, you can insult me, paint cariactures of me all you want if it makes you feel better. I deal with what I know and can prove. Absolutely... that's a concern and I'm not disputing that the Chinook probably represents the best heavy lift we can purchase. But high alt and hot...

Its a bit humorous.... all this from you because I had the temerity to question the decision to acquire one capability some were not sold upon. But hey, what do I know? Apparently I'm a F-35 cheerleading, cubicle dwelling, evil consultant trying to screw the forces. Again, I'm not "forgetting...

There was consideration given within the DND on alternatives, because this was a costly purchase and there were alternatives available. The  requirements were basically set to be only heavy lift (CH-47) at Hillier's request. That killed any possibility of looking at alternative force structures...