Tories To Waste Billons On New Fighter Jets

[petros]

This started looooooooong before Harper. This is probably the only Liberal purchase they stuck with but to me that means nothing because neither are our true governors anyway. That is just the TV show called Canada.

 

[petros]

Would be nice if your being attacked not to be seen. Have a upper edge your opponent may not be aware of.

100km above your head sit the wildest weapons (un)known to mankind.

 

[ironsides]

If Russia or China decided to invade Canada, our military, navy and air farce would be wiped out in one day, more likely an hour even with the addition of these 65 planes. That is a huge waste of money. What is the point of having them just to have them destroyed and a bunch of our people killed. Any way, the US would not stand for invasion on their border. That leaves only the US who could invade us, and there ain't nothin' we could do about that either. As far as I'm concerned, our military should be used only for disaster relief. We need peace, not war. Besides, I don't know of any standing army that was able to defeat a guerrilla army. Don't have to look much farther than Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam or the US of A (their guerrilla army defeated the British). Time to spend that money by investing in Canada and Canadians - education, health care, job creation.

You have got to get a TV Cliffy, you may not like the news but it is all we have to make decisions with. The war in Iraq is pretty much over, and yes we did win. It is not our job to get the factions to like each other, eventually they may revert to another Saddam type of goverment, that is their business till it effects other countries.
Time to invest in protecting yourselves.

 

[petros]

TV is the problem not the solution.



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F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Lightning II

Lockheed Martin formed a partnership with BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman. No single company could do this project alone. So they combined into one team and created an integrated management at a much higher level than what is usually done. The next tier down in the program includes the major critical suppliers like Honeywell, Northrop Grumman Radar Systems, Goodrich, and about 50 others. These major suppliers make up the U.S. industry team chartered to make it all happen.
JSF vendor selection is based on best value criteria. Best value criteria is a function of many different things: risk, technology maturity; not just price. All international suppliers have to compete for work on the program. The US suppliers have been asked to help us find the best international companies to participate. For example, Honeywell has its own international suppliers. The major US suppliers involve their international vendors and allow them to bid on the projects.
Lockheed sends a team to each of the participating countries. Sometimes that team will have a representative from Honeywell, TRW, or another U.S. company. That team assesses the companies in that country to decide which ones are competitive. They make selections and give them an opportunity to bid. These companies must have good systems in place (i.e., IT, manufacturing systems, and software to compete with the other suppliers/partners.

There are a lot of Canadian jobs on the line if this were cancelled.

 

[#juan]

My choice would have been the Stealth Eagle or something cheaper. Something with a lower a unit cost so we could have bought more of them.
With the length of our borders, we need more than 65 aircraft. We are not going to attack anyone where we need super stealth. What we need are about 200 modern patrol aircraft to replace the CF-18s

 

[EagleSmack]

My choice would have been the Stealth Eagle or something cheaper. Something with a lower a unit cost so we could have bought more of them.
With the length of our borders, we need more than 65 aircraft. We are not going to attack anyone where we need super stealth. What we need are about 200 modern patrol aircraft to replace the CF-18s

Why you wouldn't want a stealth aircraft even in defense is beyond me.

When you say modern patrol craft like the F-18, what do you mean? The F-35 is a fighter just like the F-18 only more modern.

 

[Chiliagon]

honestly, I don't care.

 

[Praxius]

The F-35 is a good plane to replace the Turdoh era F-18's. Once that's done let's get some decent tanks and tansport trucks.

Decent tanks?

We're using Leopard 2's.... which are viewed by many around the world as being the best tanks available today, where the M1A2 comes in second. (Of course in the US, they claim the M1's are the best, and the L2's second best)

As for transport trucks.... we have been investing in those as well to replace the G-wagons.

| Canadian Army | National Defence and the Canadian Forces

See APV's as one example.

As for the F-35's...... there's far better jets for far less of a cost out there to choose from then those over-glorified things and I am a tad pissed that the Conservatives didn't even bother to seek out bids first before just jumping into this deal.... thus removed any chance of saving the country some money and possibly finding a far more superior fighter jet to invest in.

List of fighter aircraft - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sukhoi PAK FA
Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA)
J-XX
There's even the F-22 Raptor

My pick would be the PAK FA personally speaking, considering it's claimed to have AI among many other features..... but the government didn't "seem" to even bother to check out any bids or offers on alternative 5th generation jets.

Added:

For the record, it would have been nice if Avro remained in existence, or better yet, our military equipment was designed and built within our own nation.... not just for the jobs, but also for security reasons, in that relying on the equipment designed and made by other nations can backfire if relations between us and that nation in question begin to waiver.

While I like the PAK FA, it could bring a concern if a conflict between Russia and Canada ever occurred, as we'd be stuck with Russian fighters that would probably need Russian parts/resources.

And yes, I'm aware of the jobs and such that will come to Canada with this plan of the F-35's, since Lockheed Martin employs people in this country..... call it nostalgia, but I still prefer the idea of our Canadian Forces, using Canadian Equipment, built by Canadians.

Canada had a long history and great track record for not only having some of the world's greatest pilots, the world's greatest pilot training facilities, but also some of the best designed aircraft up until a couple of decades ago.

Now we're stuck having to rely on other countries to supply us with the things we used to make ourselves and sell to other countries.

Simply put.... I just don't really like the F-35's.

 

[EagleSmack]

honestly, I don't care.

Hey Chili did you get my response to your NYC visit?

 

[lone wolf]

Seems to me we get the ground attack role in any major conflict and this is too much airplane for the job. A fleet of Warthogs may have been a better choice if helicopters leave such a sour taste in governmental mouths.

 

[EagleSmack]

My pick would be the PAK FA personally speaking, considering it's claimed to have AI among many other features..... but the government didn't "seem" to even bother to check out any bids or offers on alternative 5th generation jets.

No surprise there.

 

[Praxius]

No surprise there.

Excuse me for finding US military equipment being below par in some cases.

Don't get me wrong... the US makes some very innovative weapons and vehicles..... but they're expensive and as the case of the M1A2's and the Leopard 2's..... some countries make more efficient and far cheaper vehicles then the US does.

When it comes to fighter jets.... I don't find the F-22 or the F-35 all that impressive.

The F-18 was a great fighter jet.... Canada's modification of those jets to CF-18's made them even better along with the various Phase I and II upgrades over the years...... but my spidy senses are tingling over the F-35's.

 

[EagleSmack]

Excuse me for finding US military equipment being below par in some cases.

Don't get me wrong... the US makes some very innovative weapons and vehicles..... but they're expensive and as the case of the M1A2's and the Leopard 2's..... some countries make more efficient and far cheaper vehicles then the US does.

When it comes to fighter jets.... I don't find the F-22 or the F-35 all that impressive.

No surprise there either.

The F-18 was a great fighter jet.... Canada's modification of those jets to CF-18's made them even better along with the various Phase I and II upgrades over the years......

I should hope so...they were 1982 vintage.

but my spidy senses are tingling over the F-35's.

Naturally

 

[AnnaG]

I thought the SU-47 looked pretty nasty in comparison to the F-35. I think if I were making the decisions, I'd be investing in the Russian bird.

It's hard to compare the Leopard and the Abrams, IMO. One is designed for maximising the crew survivability by protection (armor, detection, etc.) and firepower. The Abrams is designed for that purpose by focusing on firepower and mobility. Apples and oranges as far as I can tell.

 

[GreenFish66]

Sounds like a Conservative Plan. Didn't we just have A B.S.(Bail-out /Stimulus) Recession ?The Whole economy apparently Crashed due to The Bush War Mongers..How will 65 fighters postively change Canada?...10 Billion is a lot of $$...A lot of money I thought WE didn't have..

-Do these Jet fighters have Auto Pilot?-

 

[dumpthemonarchy]

You complain when your military has to go off to war with inferior equipment, and yet complain more about giving them some first rate aircraft to protect their lives.. This Cold War is not over, just taking a break.

I didn't complain about the military going to war in Afghanistan, that too was and is a big waste of money. We have a landmass the size of Europe and no bases in the North? This is a joke.

 

[GreenFish66]

It is/was and continues to be A BIG JOKE... Constant B.S...War is for Big Kids who just don't want to Grow up...World Leaders continuosly play games with the Slave Drones/ Sheeples lives to keep them in line/Herded..."They" Plan their actions in Big World Meetings and never seem to have to deal with the consequences of their actions...

"They" Don't CARE..It is all A big GAME to them ...A game that in THE END no1 will win...

If it wasn't for the need of "Big Security", we would all live in peace with our pieces..

Civilized people come now, if you hurry, the future is yours, cuz your vision is clear..

R.I.P.. The Selfish with eat themselves, so there's no need to feed them your fears..It will all come to pass...1 way or another..

It's all just philisophical Political B.S..Big Biz at the peoples expense ..Just ignore them or they'll drive you nuts because "They" never seem to go away..."They" will continue to push their drivel until "They" get what "They" want......

War ...War ...War...

Is all B.S...

Let's change "Their" future... Let's move postively forward into the future...Despite "Them"

The Self Righteous War Mongers..
....

 

[lone wolf]

I didn't complain about the military going to war in Afghanistan, that too was and is a big waste of money. We have a landmass the size of Europe and no bases in the North? This is a joke.

How far north?

 

[#juan]

Why do we need an aircraft that is slower than the CF-18. Why do we need a stealth aircraft that
is only stealthy from the front? That stealth capability disappears completely if it carries weapons or external fuel.
We don't need a second or third best aircraft that costs $150,000,000.00/copy. Buying the F-35 would be a big mistake.

 

[GreenFish66]

Do these fighters have autopilot?

Perhaps we should just hold off for the Drone plane tech to advance a little more..