Eye In The Sky
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The RCAF's Next Generation Fighter (CF-188 Replacement)
- Thread starter WingsofFury
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daftandbarmy
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<Maintaining an operational Airborne capability - if even on a very limited scale - enters the chat>
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He's usually pretty well informed.
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Canada, as a participant in the Joint Strike Fighter MOU, has privileged access to the program should the Govt decide to purchase the F35.
Colin Parkinson
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Until they arrive on the tarmac with a RCAF roundel on it, I am not holding my breath
Spencer100
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CTV’s got it now too
Questions swirl as Canada launches negotiations for F-35 stealth fighter
Canada's decade-long search for a new fighter jet to replace its aging CF-18s came full circle on Monday as the Liberal government announced negotiations with U.S. defence giant Lockheed Martin to purchase the F-35.
www.ctvnews.ca
armrdsoul77
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armrdsoul77
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Botswana might be getting some pretty sweet hornets with aesa radar.
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88 is not enough planes - within 20yrs we will be in the exact same situation that we are currently in - not having enough planes to meet current NORAD/NATO needs and have anything of substance left over to contribute to anything external after taking attrition into account. That 88 plane contract must have an option to purchase another 8-12 planes over the next 20yrs.
Also, by purchasing only 88 planes I guess any increase in military spending towards meeting 2% will not include any additional fighter plane capability.
I think the original number was 65. 88 is a bit better. And I think it makes us the 4th largest purchaser of F35s.
I’m not an expert on what we actually need but more is always good.
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We bought 138 F-18's 40yrs ago. Today we are buying 35% less planes than we did 40yrs ago, plus we bought another 18 used F-18's from Australia, when you factor those planes into the equation its 41% less - does that make sense to you? Yes, we no longer station planes in Germany, but I'm not sure how someone can justify buying 35% less.
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Part of the JSF concept is that the production line remains open for future purchases.
The purchase of 88 represents an increase over the number planned by the previous government.
The purchase of 88 represents an increase over the number planned by the previous government.
Again I don’t know what the need is so I can’t comment. Can an F35 do more than an F18? How many planes do we need? Numbers are arbitrary unless a need is a established which I assume has been done. Maybe it isn’t what we need but I don’t know.
But 88 is more than 65. Which is a good thing. The government could have just stuck to the original number but increased it.
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The number 88 has been talked about since 2017 - does it reflect the current world threat assessment? Does it reflect the new, upcoming 'requests' that are more than likely coming down the pipeline from NATO, from the US here in NORAD? Does it take into account the potential conflict with China 20+yrs in the future? Does it add to our existing 4 squadrons and allow us to contribute more elsewhere? Does it take into account loss of planes over 20yrs? Over 30yrs? Over 40yrs?
Today, 40yrs on, we have only 72 planes operational - 72 planes out of 150 purchased (initial purchase plus 2nd hand Aussie planes) - less than 50%. What will be our operational level 20yrs out, 30yrs?
On the face of it, it looks like Canada is once again bringing an open bag of chips to the party.
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We had options to purchase 20 additional CF-18's built within the original contract, we never bothered to exercise them, what makes you think this time will be different?
What plans do our government have for the F-18s once the new fighters (assuming it will be the F-35) start arriving? Will they sell them to, say, some South American country? Or is there still a lesser role they could serve by keeping, say, a squadron of them? Or will they be too out of date and expensive to maintain?
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Given the significant US content, any sales to a third party will require US approval.
