Barring a comeback win by Stephen Harper, Lockheed's sort of stealthy, light attack bomber will not be adopted by the Royal Canadian Air Force. Mulcair's against it and, now, so is Trudeau.
That means if either of them or the two of them in coalition form the next government, Canada will be looking for something more appropriate to replace our aging fleet of CF-18 Hornets purchased by the government of Pierre Trudeau.
This comes on the heels of an item by Ottawa Citizen defence correspondent, Dave Pugliese, concerning the F-35's laughable capability as a fighter jet. The article cited US Air Force general Hawk Carlisle, head of Air Combat Command, admitting the F-35 is no dogfighter. That role, according to Hawk, belongs to the F-35's big brother, the F-22 Raptor.
Of course the Harper government's aborted buy was only for the F-35. The Americans won't allow even their closest allies to buy the F-22, not even Canada which is integral to the States' air defence through NORAD.
Fortunately upgraded versions of the Eurofighter Typhoon, the French Rafale and the Swedish SAAB Griffin are coming online, and they are fighters.
Rafale's still the best choice IMHO> Capable,combat proven (though I don't think it's had any hot air-to-air engagements to date to my knowledge), and Dassault has offered a sizable industrial/manufacturing/technology package deal to go with it. Dumping LockMart's lemon-scented shit wagons is another argument as good as any to dump Harper and his prevarications over the whole deal, and it'll send all those ticket punchers at DND-HQ who are brown nosing to become L-M lobbyists and who don't give a damn about the pilots packing. Let saner heads and policies prevail; though I'm not clear where Elizabeth Nay is on all of this (I've decided after a lot of thought - and watching Mulcair diss Linda McQuaig, say the tarsands can be managed "responsibly". and tossing his own under the bus for daring to criticize Israeli apartheid policies towards the Palestinians - to vote for the Green Party)
ReplyDeleteN.
Rafale's an obvious front-runner, Neil, but have you seen the newest iteration of Typhoon? I wouldn't mind seeing somebody kickstart Canada's high-tech aviation industry. Work with SAAB on a twin-engine,long-range design along the lines of Griffin. Aviation Week's Bill Sweetman thinks SAAB is delivering the best bang for the buck, hands down.
ReplyDeleteWe can't ignore the fact that Putin is rapidly re-militarizing the Arctic with new production Tu-160s and an all new stealth bomber in the works along with new ultra-long range cruise missiles. We've got a lot of airspace to patrol and that requires an aircraft purpose built for that role.
Yup, and not to flog an all too dead horse, imagine for a moment if Canada had adopted the Arrow where we might be. Not an Arrow Mk. II, IV, or even VI but it's eventual successor into fourth and fifth generation fighters. Would we have produced rivals to the SR-71 or B-1B? How much farther along would we be in aerospace if we hadn't been turned into weak sisters by the US? We night have even had our own - not the currently all too modest - manned space program.
ReplyDeleteWe'll never know...
N.
Amen to that, Neil. We somehow came out of the Arrow debacle with this idea that there were technological summits we just weren't suited to climb. I came in during the CF-100, CF-101 and CF-104 era. Some interesting warplanes but nothing of the Arrow calibre. It was during that time that I began to take a close look at what relatively small Sweden was producing, aircraft like the Draken and the Viggen. How could Sweden do that yet we had to give up on producing our own, high-performance aircraft purpose built for Canada's unique circumstances? Why couldn't a Canadian design compete for foreign orders? It was obviously a political decision to steer clear of the challenge.
ReplyDeleteYou're right. We'll never know.
ThinkingManNeil said..., " . . . imagine for a moment if Canada had adopted the Arrow where we might be."
ReplyDeleteImagine if Canada had kept it's coastal and border defenses up to snuff. Imagine if we still had a merchant marine. Imagine if we still made washing machines. Imagine if the area where you live was still food self sufficient. Imagine if Canada had chosen to not be a colony of the US.
With tongue firmly in cheek, I suggest innocently "Maybe we could buy a Russian fighter."
ReplyDelete@Toby
ReplyDelete"Imagine if Canada had chosen to not be a colony of the US"
We had no option, to paraphrase Mr. Turner.
USA de facto dictate or could dictate policies of every nation save for Russia and China...
A..non
Actually, Purple, the Sukhoi Su-35M wouldn't be a bad choice for Canada. Big, twin-engined, can carry a lot of internal fuel, impressive payload, very highly maneuverable. But buying Russian is unthinkable to almost any western government. So much for common sense...
ReplyDeleteM.
Before we enter the world of adolecents with mine is bigger than yours ,ours could have been bigger than yours, ours will be bigger than yours; we must consider and decide what role we intend to play in this world.
ReplyDeleteThe USA and Russia ( plus their tag alongs) have decided they have the biggest pricks and so will compete.
Is Canadas role to hold the US prick whilst it fucks the world?
Maybe , just maybe we can become original ,again, and earn some respect!
Trailblazer
Apparently not if Mulcair and the neo-dippers ascend to Olympus. Militaristic NDP. Who'd a thunk it?
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