Wasn’t intended to be a dig at you, more the countless anti-F-35 folks in Canada that seem to think y’all will be better served by something else.
The mental gymnastics going on with that crowd are astounding and I have to wonder if their parents had any children that lived, as clearly they are clinically braindead.
2015.
That was when this thread started.
2010.
Harper announced his intention to buy 65 of the beasts
2006.
Production starts and Canada starts making money
1997.
Chretien starts paying into the JSF-F35 project.
1993.
The JSF project launches in the US - 33 years ago.
And it was supposed to be the low cost solution.
For Canada it was a capable strike platform that woud allow it contribute to more campaigns like
Kuwait 1990
Kosovo 1999
Libya 2011
and their associated no-fly campaigns
but could also handle the less demanding domestic Air Defence role.
....
As a strong supporter of the F35, and a particular fan of the F35B, the problem I am having currently is Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Azerbaijan, the Houthis, Hamas and Hezbollah don't seem to be hindered in their abilities to launch effective bombardments in the absence of the F35 and billion dollar budgets.
....
Trying to find it now but it escapes me.
Someone just posted a video about a presntation to a bunch of US Navy corpsmen about the impact of drones on their trade in Ukraine. Many things stood out for me which disappoints me more that I can't remember where it is.
One thing that did stand out for me was the description of delivering whole blood by drone to the frontline for use by the wounded soldier.
It particularly addressed the challenge of navigation in a an electronically contested environment where your GPS system is denied. The solution was a combination mutual self-referencing and terrain following.
Essentially these 1000 dollar drones are talking to each other and saying "I know where I am. Can you see me? Get a fix on my location."
And how did the original unit know where it is? It matches what it can see through its camera to a bunch of photographs in its memory.
That was the secret sauce behind the cruise missiles tested over Canada in Reagan's day. A national secret that cost billions to develop and many more to protect to ensure it didn't fall into the wrong hands. Although it didn't take long for the US itself to produce a low cost version they could stick on any of their existing and future bombs.
Now thanks to Moore's Law, smartphones and their cameras, Google Earth and TheCloud the National Secret is now availble to every hobbyist and terrorist.
...
Add that to this.
Goddard and von Braun were playing with rockets in the 30's. They were Hitler's National Secret in the 40s and the basis of geopolitics from the 50s.
But they were also the basis of Rocket clubs of hobbyists from the 50s. And they have just got easier, and cheaper, to make. And more effective.
....
The capabilities that were only available to the state are now, in the words of the CEO of Rheinmetall, available to housewives playing with Lego.
The edge that authority had over the hoi polloi has disappeared. Just as it did when the bow and arrow ruled and later, when the rifle ruled.
Democratization of force has happened and the state no longer has a monopoly on the use of force, laws notwithstanding. As somebody once said, the laws that govern rely on the consent of the governed. A lot of people are withdrawing their consent.
...
Where does this tie in to the F35 debate?
The F35 is a trillion dollar solution to a bombardment problem that can now be solved with thousand dollar rockets and drones. And even the state is reaching for lots of thousand dollar solutions rather than exquisite trillion dollar ones. It can't afford the trillion dollar ones in any case. National Secrets don't stay secret very long. And the State's edge, its monopoly on effective force, has disappeared.
Where is the justification now, in 2026, for this 33 year old National Secret when there are multiple other solutions on offer that can be purchased, or created, in mass quantities and at pace?
What will that justification look like by 2066 when the planes still flying on patrol in our arctic will be using 73 year old technology and the logisticians will be searching for 73 tear old parts from 73 year old suppliers?
...
There is a real risk that the F35's window has closed.
That its time has passed.
And I think that is a factor in the NxORAD commander's thinking.
He needs that money to be spent on stuff that will be effective today and readily adaptive to wahatever tomorrow may bring.
...
My hovercraft dreams ended a while ago. These things happen.
...
And the government may need to spend less efoort on regulating guns and more effort on regulating rockets and drones and sugar and the other stuff necessary to make effective muutions at home.
www.thestar.com
