Here we thought that former prime minister Stephen Harper’s dream of the F-35 procurement had been put to bed. Nobody in Canada needs or wants the American F-35 aircraft. It is a bad idea promoted by the Americans to soothe their egos. It is a ground support aircraft that Canada does not need.
The only country close enough to attack us with F-35s would be the Americans. Since they would have our F-35s outnumbered by about ten to one, it would hardly be a fair fight.
It’s not that I was rooting for the Saab Gripen but there is no question that the Swedish fighter is designed for what Canada really needs. We need a reconnaissance fighter for our Arctic. We need its patrol characteristics.
And why would we want a stealth aircraft that needs air-to-air refueling before it is halfway across the north. The very essence of patrolling is letting people know you are doing it.
If we wanted to buy F-35s for the Ukrainians, I would agree, but we are probably a few years too late. With training and maintenance requirements for the F-35, it is also far too expensive for a country that is watching its cities and economy being destroyed. Mind you, Canada could arm some of our DeHavilland Beavers for Ukrainian ground support needs and that could be a winner.
Think of it. The MiG that attacks a Beaver flying nap-of-the-earth will end up either crashing or watching its rockets wander off looking for a larger target. And I would pity the poor helicopter pilot who thinks he can win a dog-fight with a Beaver.
The good news in all of this is that the U.S. has already had 20 years of the planning and design wasted on Lockheed Martin’s fifth generation fighter. Canada paid for some of that development to ensure that we get a share of the production. The government is now launching negotiations on the price (as yet unknown). Let’s hope those negotiations take another 20 years. By then there might be foreseeable peace and we won’t need the American planes.
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