That’s true so easy to do. My question, and I don’t know the answer, are they nuclear ready like the Dassault Rafale? It may strategic to purchase both in proportion to strategic need.
I was already thinking this might happen in Europe. I’d forgotten the F-35 controversy has been big in Canada for a while. I won’t say what y’all should or shouldn’t do, but I will say this was a foreseeable consequence for US arms sales.
Norway must do the same. The F-35s are a security liability at this point. Planes that can be bricked by a mad narcissist who can align himself—on a whim—with our enemies and dictators of the world, should they flatter him and offer a sufficiently ‘good deal’
These g/d things have been the bane of our existence for so long!
If anyone else, including ourselves, can come up with something that actually fills the bill, which these *never* have, being a Harper glory project, we should cut these loose.
We're not going to 'come up' with something, that takes years and hundreds of million to billions of dollars. We don't have the time and it's a poor investment of money when there are other options out there.
The Harper order was cancelled. It was re-selected following an open, if somewhat biased (DND/RCAF wrote the requirements which favoured the F-35, it's what they wanted, and NORAD favours US made aircraft).
The problem is that we needed the jets yesterday. The CF-188s are clapped out - we already had to buy 20 mothballed spares from Australia, so we don't really have the time to start over or get in queue somewhere else. So if we cancel, we need to have a replacement on the assembly line tomorrow.
Oh, there are options. The same ones we had during the competition. The biggest problem is time. The F-35s we signed for are on the assembly line now. Anything else would have to go through the contract negotiation and then fit into existing queues.
It’s the only way we’ll learn that fascism is bad. Make sure that your retaliatory tariffs cripple our country’s defense contractors. Or better yet, buy jets from somewhere else.
Buying defense equipment from the US is dumb as rocks; They'll always have backdoors in place that'd provide their govt remote access. Our govt needs to cancel the contract & talk to the french ASAP! A $74B contract loss sends an instant msg: Canada's not playing around! #cdnpoli
The problem is that it hurts us, too. The CF-188s were already overdue for replacement, and that would just set things back further. It also makes us look like an unreliable client. Also, the American half of NORAD is picky about which jets they play nice with - and we can't dump NORAD yet.
We could look at reducing the order to minimum required to meet NORAD requirements and start shopping for another option (or just go with the Gripen, the runner up in the competition if they'll give us the same deal they were offering). Mixed fleet comes with problems, but may be worth it.
How serious is the prospect of shifting to Gripens or Typhoons? Because seriously (& I realize I'm repeating myself on your timeline), the F-35 is just not a good value. Any of the European options are more mature.
We cancelled them 10 years ago. Biden talked us back into them last year when there are half a dozen better and cheaper options for Canada's needs. Such a waste of money.
(that is why I would never buy a tesla, even before musk turned out to be a nazi. knowing that a capricious shithead could brick my car is a non starter - literally)
The Rafale is a very good fighter, but the cost of flying hours is high for a country like Brazil. The Gripen is considered one of the fighters with the lowest operating costs in its category. Its flight hour cost varies between US$ 5,000 and US$ 7,000, compared to US$ 22,000 for Dassault Rafale.
We don't need to look at Brazil, we already did consider it. It was the runner up in the fighter replacement program. Lost on not being American enough for NORAD and not making the RCAF part of the cool kids 5th gen fighter club.
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They are essentially useless for Canada
If anyone else, including ourselves, can come up with something that actually fills the bill, which these *never* have, being a Harper glory project, we should cut these loose.
From the article it sounds like there are options.
I don’t think we should put all our eggs in any one basket.
And while I am no expert, these seem like an even worse bad purchase now.
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/politics/government/could-canada-drop-the-f-35-deal-european-defense-firms-eye-14-billion-opportunity/ar-AA1yscaz
It would be a suicide.
https://www.saab.com/markets/canada/gripen-for-canada
The US under Trump in not a reliable ally or vendor.
(that is why I would never buy a tesla, even before musk turned out to be a nazi. knowing that a capricious shithead could brick my car is a non starter - literally)
Canada TOTALLY should shitcan the deal.
That's $74 billion USD we can use for infrastructure aka good union jobs.
You fuckin' pedophilic slavers. I hope the dead of Greater Slave Lake and Lesser Slave Lake shred you all into infinite agony.
🖖🖕