Over the weekend, General Tom Lawson, a Royal Canadian Air Force officer and currently the Chief of Defence Staff — Canada’s top soldier — told CTV’s Question Period that our CF-18s are a world-class fighter capable of getting the job done in Iraq. The General noted, rightly, that although the CF-18s were first ordered in the early 1980s and are thus in their early 30s, they have been repeatedly (and relatively recently) upgraded and modernized.
These planes have what it takes to bomb ISIS in Iraq, the General said, and that’s true, if not exactly saying much. ISIS isn’t believed to have much in the way of anti-aircraft ability. (There is a rumour that ISIS has captured some Syrian fighter jets and is trying to train pilots to fly them, but they’d look real cute going up against Western pilots with thousands of hours of training and advanced air-to-air missiles). The General said, however, that more generally, the upgraded CF-18s are “amongst the finest” fighter aircraft in the world right now. Given that we have half a dozen of them patrolling the edge of Russian airspace in accordance with our NATO obligations, let’s hope he’s right.
Whatever the current state of our fighter force, however, there is something that can’t be denied. We need a much, much bigger air fleet than we currently have, or that we are expected to have after we purchase our next fighter jet to replace the aging CF-18s. As I have detailed in a previous column, our current Air Force fields four operational squadrons (Air Force geeks: Yes, I know they’re only grouped into two administrative squadrons) of 12 CF-18s each, for a total of 48.
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Matt Gurney: We don't have enough fighter jets to whip out | National Post
These planes have what it takes to bomb ISIS in Iraq, the General said, and that’s true, if not exactly saying much. ISIS isn’t believed to have much in the way of anti-aircraft ability. (There is a rumour that ISIS has captured some Syrian fighter jets and is trying to train pilots to fly them, but they’d look real cute going up against Western pilots with thousands of hours of training and advanced air-to-air missiles). The General said, however, that more generally, the upgraded CF-18s are “amongst the finest” fighter aircraft in the world right now. Given that we have half a dozen of them patrolling the edge of Russian airspace in accordance with our NATO obligations, let’s hope he’s right.
Whatever the current state of our fighter force, however, there is something that can’t be denied. We need a much, much bigger air fleet than we currently have, or that we are expected to have after we purchase our next fighter jet to replace the aging CF-18s. As I have detailed in a previous column, our current Air Force fields four operational squadrons (Air Force geeks: Yes, I know they’re only grouped into two administrative squadrons) of 12 CF-18s each, for a total of 48.
shine on here
Matt Gurney: We don't have enough fighter jets to whip out | National Post