The RCAF's Next Generation Fighter (CF-188 Replacement)

[Czech_pivo]

The truth is before Trump, NO ONE gave a rats fart about the Gripen, then TRump talks shit, Canadians get all pearl clutching and now they are suddenly finding new reasons to invest in SAAB, Gripen, our own aircraft industry, etc.

Canadian reality. When Trump is gone, and if no obvious direct threat (or scary republicans), then Canadians will go back to big no on anything defence spending and lets go all in on social programs again.

Not to bring politics into this discussion but lets face it, the aircraft purchase "review" has become all political now. Nothing to do witjh capability, interoperability or anything military.

There's a whole lot of truth in that.

I seem to be among the few hawks who wants Canada to spend the money and have a robust CAF, I guess that's my American side of me coming out. I believe that if you want something, you should go out and get it and be damn sure you can hold onto it when you do get it.

 

[RangerRay]

The US has been in the flying of stealth aircraft business for more than four decades.
LocMart brought the F 117A to the USAF in operational squadrons in the early 80's.
Northrop Grumman's B2 went into service in 1997.
LocMart brought the F-22 Raptor to the USAF in 2005 --

And they got stealth from crashed alien UFOs at Area 51!

(I kid, I kid…)

 

[ytz]

There are some clear reasons to build some things specifically in Canada for national security reasons, however the # of fighters Canada will acquire will never hit a number that will even make it feasible to produce in Canada for a third party. Given Canada has spun off or closed several of the Defense industries that actually made sense to be Crown Corporations, the idea that Canadians would fund a Canadian Fighter Industry seems a little ludicrous.

There are ways to do this. Just not in the way that is being pitched now. If we really wanted to build military aircraft, we could:

1) Push drones and CCAs where requirements are less stringent and where there are more partners available than the US;
2) Push Bombardier to become more of an integrator. Just look at the whole portfolio of surveillance aircraft the US Army is developing using Globals; and,
3) Develop a second tier strategy for example build trainers as a reserve force generation fleet that let's us have more reserve pilots.

But none of this is on the table. Instead we're going to buy a small Panther fleet that will face growing demands and a second Gripen fleet that will be crippled over the long run in many ways.