BEST FIGHTER FOR CANADA

RAAF Super Hornets An official announcement has yet to be made, but the Trudeau's government's rumored acquisition of Super Hornets has already drummed up controversy.  Not the least of which conjures up the dreaded "S-word"...   No, not that one . We are talking about the dreaded act of "sole-sourcing".  The awarding of a fat government contract without a full bidding process.  This does indeed raise concerns, as the vender is under no pressure to provide competitive pricing.  Unfortunately, the rumored "interim" Super Hornet acquisition does exactly that. So why would the governing Liberals do this, especially after campaigning on the promise to hold an open and fair fighter competition ?  Not only does this seemingly break an election promise, but if makes them appear as hypocrites after criticizing the Harper government for sole-sourcing the F-35. Is sole-sourcing truly such a bad thing, however? Let us look at a few examples, conve...

Don't worry.  This is a one-parter. It comes around on a seemingly regular basis. Either here, in the Facebook group, or some other media; someone will spout off that golden nugget that attempts to put a nail through everything I and others like me have tried to do over the last few years.  That nugget reads like the following: Those close to the F-35 program sing its praises.  Its critics are those who have never flown on it or worked on it.   It raises an interesting point. Why trust a random blogger over test pilot who flies the aircraft?  Why trust a scathing aviation reporter when official press releases are saying everything is tickety-boo?  What does it matter to us, anyway?  It isn't as if we will ever fly this airplane. While it is true that us aviation enthusiasts, bloggers, critics, and other layman are not as "connected" with the program as the pilots, executives, and politicians anchoring their careers to the JSF, there i...

Take close look at the following: What you are looking at is 4 F-35Bs, 2 KC-10 Extenders, 1 C-17 Globemaster III, and 1 KC-130 Hercules.  All together, you are looking at approximately $1 billion worth of hardware.  (Give or take, but I'm being generous here.) These aircraft you see above will gather soon for a purpose .  That purpose:  So that the JSF can make its international debut in the United Kingdom .  The F-35B is scheduled to perform a flight demonstration at the Royal International Air Tattoo in Fairford, followed by another aerial demonstration in Farnborough.  There is also hope that the F-35B will perform a flyby during the HMS Queen Elizabeth's naming ceremony in Scotland. Four fighters, two tankers, one heavy transport, one medium transport and around 80 personnel.  That is what is needed in order for the F-35 to perform two air shows and a fly by.  There may be a static display at the Air Tattoo, but...

Canada's military procurement.  A few hits, but mostly misses.   Canada's military procurement strategy lately seems to beg the question:  "Does Canada have a military procurement strategy?" Big ticket items, like fighter jets, helicopters, and even a new headquarters seem almost unobtainable thanks to controversy, cost overruns and delays.  In the meantime, the Canadian Armed Forces are left wondering when the new equipment will arrive, if ever. How bad is it?  Some have compared it to a Monty Python movie. The Sea King replacement:  Going on 30 years of searching... The most notorious example, the Sea King replacement, has now been in the works since 1983.  It's one time designated replacement, the EH101, was canned by the Chretien government back in 1993, and the program was put on the back burner until the mid-1990s.  Finally, in 2004, a militarized version of the Sikorsky S-92 Cougar, dubbed the CH-148 Cyclone, was selected....