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

[Nvlgzr]

Apart from basic maintenance does the F35 give us the option of doing our own major overhauls or do the a/c go back to the dealer?

Since Australia has more experience with the F-35, we should follow their lead and ship them to Hong Kong. The Chinese probably would service it faster than Missing Parts Lockheed.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

People also forget that aircraft like the Voodoo and Starfighter were cutting edge technology for the day and were every bit as much of a struggle for the maintainers and planners of the day as the the modern era aircraft are for us.

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

The parts management problem is a very small problem today (other than when LockMart is behind). A lot of parts are line replacement units (LRUs). Pull, replace and send to contractor.

Obviously not, since they have already managed to misplace a million of them.

 

[markppcli]

People also forget that aircraft like the Voodoo and Starfighter were cutting edge technology for the day and were every bit as much of a struggle for the maintainers and planners of the day as the the modern era aircraft are for us.

We had 50000 people in the RCAF when the Voodoo was adopted in 1961. If you want multiple fighter fleets expect to double the size of the air force.

 

[Czech_pivo]

We had 50000 people in the RCAF when the Voodoo was adopted in 1961. If you want multiple fighter fleets expect to double the size of the air force.

And?

How many of those 50,000 wouldn't be around today thanks to automation, efficiency streamlining and general redundancy reductions?

The RCN is bantering around that they will need to grow by 40% for just the Rivers, Type 212CD's, JSS and AOPS, not including any potential CDC growth and the much talked about ORCA replacements and growth of where they might be stationed. That 40% could easily become 60%+ growth.
From reading on this forum, the RCAF comes across as the branch that whines the most - whether that's accurate or not I certainly don't have any clue if its justified. But that is my observation.

When we flew 138 CF188's the size of the RCAF was approximately 23,000. Why would you expect the RCAF to require another 23,000 personnel if the 138 fighters was split between F35's and Gripens and we went back to flying multiple fighter fleets?

Today the RCAF is approximately 15,500 personnel, with about 50% of those remaining CF-188's - plus the much waste of tax payers money - the 25 Australian F18's. If we were to add approximately 60ish new fighters (Gripens), in additional to swapping out the remaining CF-188's for F35's, we would need another 6-7,000 personnel for those 60 Gripens? A ratio of 100 new personnel for 1 Gripen? If we added another 60 fighters and all of those 60 were straight F35's, (so that we were flying 120-130 F35's) what would the required new personnel to fighter ratio be?

Case in point - the Gripen and the F35 both use the same type of fuel - Jet A1 or the standard NATO military fuel. Is it not possible that an person in the RCAF cannot be trained to add that same fuel into a Gripen and into a F35 - or is the argument that the steps required to add that same fuel into a Gripen is so different and so unique from adding fuel into a F35 that you must have 2 individuals trained to work completely separate and independent from each other, never to be able to add that same fuel into the other plane?

I'm not arguing for a mixed fleet. I'm trying to wrap my head around the argument that if we went with a mixed fleet that our personnel needs would magically need to double because of it. I'm not seeing the math or understanding the math.

 

[YZT580]

I think you want to give that one some thought...

Wasn't software that was the failure it was rubber O rings. the programming worked fine as far as I know.

 

[YZT580]

We had 50000 people in the RCAF when the Voodoo was adopted in 1961. If you want multiple fighter fleets expect to double the size of the air force.

We also had 338 aircraft and that doesn't count the crews for the F5 which we flew coincidentally.