Canada is set to award the largest military contract in its history to replace our 40-year-old CF-18 interceptor fleet. Contract award is scheduled for next year, the first devices would start to be delivered in 2025.
Ottawa wants to buy 88 planes for 15 to 19 billion Canadian dollars. But the total cost for the full lifecycle of the device could be four times that amount, or more than $ 77 billion. Ottawa is evaluating proposals from Lockheed Martin (F-35 Lightning II), Boeing (F / A-18E / F Super Hornet) and Sweden’s Saab (Gripen E).
The plane that Ottawa seems to favor, the F-35, is a lame duck, a flying turkey, an albatross. In recent months, the accumulation of problems with the F-35 program confirms that after twenty years of development, this Jet is a pathetic failure.
Numerous expert reports claim that the F-35 will never be able to meet the high expectations placed on it. It is even reported that senior officers of the US Air Force are beginning to lose confidence in the aircraft. Thus, the aircraft engine is experiencing problems that could immobilize 43% of the American F-35 fleet on the ground – or around 800 aircraft – by 2030.
The Pentagon is the only one to blame for the disaster. He wanted the airframe of a single aircraft to be able to take off vertically and stop in flight while still having the capability of stealth supersonic flight. And also to land on aircraft carriers. Impossible mission.
For Justin Trudeau, choosing the F-35 would be a denial. He stated, during the 2015 election campaign, that he would abandon the purchase of F-35 planes if he became Prime Minister. But opting out of the F-35 program would cost Canada $ 313 million. In 2006, Ottawa pledged $ 551 million to the project.
Hopefully Canada does not go for the F-35. Here’s why.
Ottawa’s decision to purchase F-35s would demonstrate its intention to have the ability to engage militarily alongside Americans around the world.
The United States expects Canada, like its other allies, to acquire F-35s, which offer full software and hardware compatibility with American aviation, making our air force the auxiliary air force of the United States. United.
These planes are not necessary for the defense of Canada. The F-35 is not an aircraft intended to ensure the air defense of our territory. It’s not an interceptor, it’s an attack aircraft. Its stealth technology is designed to give it a decisive advantage in first strike missions in the initial phase of a war.
You don’t need the F-35, unless you want to join in the American warlike adventures of the next decades, when Washington leads the inevitable rearguard battles of declining universal empires.
What we need is a real interceptor to succeed the F-18 in its role of air defense of the territory. And we can still postpone the choice of a device to do this for several years. Canada has just acquired 25 used Australian F-18s to add to its CF-18 fleet. Excellent idea.
The American F-35s were already obsolete before they even made their first flight: the days of planes with pilots on board are numbered. The future of military aviation lies with robotic planes and drones.
Why not see if we can make technological updates to keep our current CF-18s while waiting for the development of future interceptor drones?
But you are going to say that we then risk being downgraded technologically by our potential adversaries. The Russians, for example?
Their bombers, which have patrolled our coasts for decades, are not about to be retired. Russia has decided to keep its antique TU-95 propellers in operation until the 2040s, when they will be 100 years old. Our CF-18s would then be barely 60 years old!
–
