BEST FIGHTER FOR CANADA

Typhoon, we hardly knew ye... Airbus, which represents the Eurofighter consortium, announced the decision to withdraw from Canada's future fighter competition .  This follows Dassault, which announced its decision to leave back in November of last year.  This leaves Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Saab pitching their F-35, Super Hornet, and Gripen; respectively. I wish I could say this came as a surprise.  Sadly, anyone who has been paying attention should have seen this coming. Airbus's reasoning for dropping out of the competition sound suspiciously close to Dassault's; citing difficulty meeting security requirements and a last-minute alteration to the RFP that seemed to favor the JSF. “A detailed review has led the parties to conclude that NORAD security requirements continue to place too significant of a cost on platforms whose manufacture and repair chains sit outside the United States-Canada 2-EYES community,” the statement from Airbus and the UK Defence Min...

As we enter 2019 and what  should be  the homestretch of Canada's CF-18 replacement saga, I thought it would be useful to do a quick update on where all the fighters stand. F-35 LIGHTNING II After years of development problems and controversy, the F-35 can now be declared an operational fighter.  The jet has been declared IOC for both the USAF and the USMC, with the USN scheduled for later this year.  Not only that, but  foreign customers are taking deliveries  and the aircraft has even seen  limited comba t. Better still, the JSF's unit cost has finally dropped.  While early models were wildly expensive, later model prices seem to have leveled off to approximately  $95 million  (US) per unit.  Most recently, the F-35A broke the  $90 million barrier . Despite the current Trudeau government campaigning on the promise to not buy the F-35, the JSF is still very much a contender to replace the CF-18.  The requirem...

Well...  That didn't take long. Less than a week after Canada released a new Request for Proposals (RFP) to replace the CF-18, Dassault has decided to drop out of the running.  This is despite the fact that the new RFP made it easier  for European fighter manufacturers to compete . Unfortunately for Dassault, the new RFP still required the ability to integrate with existing NORAD and NATO infrastructure.  Most notedly, encrypted communication.  While the RFP did allow for additional leeway to meet this requirements, it does entail additional cost and risk.  This was likely too much for Dassault. As unfortunate as this news is, it should not be that much of a surprise.  Out of the five contenders, the Rafale was always the the "odd man out" when it came to compatibility.  Dassault's insistence on French-sourced weapons and subsystems makes the Rafale a harder sell to other NATO nations, especially those with their own aerospace industry t...

Welp...  So much for that! Thanks to " Trumponomics " the plan to acquire 18 F/A-18E/F Super Hornets is now effectively dead . While not yet official , Boeing has now positioned itself  persona non grata  to Canada's Liberal government.  After months of rhetoric and threats, the Liberal government would be foolish to back down on their threats to cancel its Super Hornet buy if Boeing continued its suit against Bombardier. Procuring the Super Hornet at this point would be political suicide to the Liberal party.  They would be roasted, and rightly so, all the way to the next election.  In the meantime, they risk appearing weak in NAFTA talks.  Who would back down against a government full of empty threats? Barring any last-minute compromise, the idea of a Canadian Super Hornet dead on arrival.  And we were so close, too . What is Canada to do now though?  We still have a fleet of rapidly aging fighters and a "capability gap".  We...

Still not ready for primetime... Fans of the F-35 have had to put up with a deluge of good news and bad news stories the last few months. First, the good news: After a troubled development, the JSF has now considered to be in operational service with the USAF declaring its initial operating capability (IOC) in August of last year .  The F-35 can no longer be in "development hell"...   Sort of.  Costs have gone down as well, with the latest batch of F-35s bringing the unit cost of the CTOL F-35A down to a reasonable $95 million *.   (More on the "*" later.) As if to perform a mic drop on all this, an aerobatic performance at the Paris air show put to rest any criticisms that the F-35 cannot maneuver, accelerate, or climb.  Piloted by Lockheed Martin test pilot (and former RCAF CF-18 pilot) Billie Flynn, the JSF performed a flawless routine.  It even attracted the attention of zee Germans , who have thus far declined any participation in the JSF p...

Billed as an "omnirole" fighter, the Dassault Rafale was specifically developed to act as France's sole strike fighter platform.  As such, it had to perform any and all roles needed for a fighter.  Equally adept at air superiority, strike missions, and even carrier operations, the Rafale is truly a "Jacques-of-all-trades". At first glance, the Rafale may seem to an impeccable choice to replace the CF-18.  It is truly a capable and flexible platform used by a close NATO ally.  Dassault has also been  aggressively marketing the Rafale , offering technology transfer, intellectual property rights, and the option to manufacturer parts or even final assembly. Dassault Rafale C01 History In 1979, Dassault briefly partnered up with what was later to become the Eurofighter consortium.  By 1985, France had left the program due to "creative differences".  While the other nations were focused on a ground-based air-superiority interceptor platform, Fr...

No...  Not that. It would seem that the CF-18 is not the only RCAF asset that is being tasked with flying past its prime. (Unlike the wonderful and evergreen Anne Murray) There ya go. Recent news reports have stated that the RCAF's fabled demonstration team will likely continue flying the venerable CT-114 Tutor until the year 2030 .  This would put the 60's era jet trainers approaching their 70th birthday by the time they retire.  Not as a design, but as actual 70-year-old airframes, as the last Tutor was built in 1966.  Even now, the Snowbirds can be considered ancient artifacts (apologies to any of my readers over the age of 50).   There is no shame in this, as the CT-114 Tutor has outlasted the CF-101 Voodoo, and is well on track to outlasting the CF-18 as well.   Indeed, the 431 Demonstration Squadron could be considered a "Heritage Flight".  As Professor Jones would say: From 1961 to 2000, the CT-114 Tutor served ...

And so it begins...  Again... The Canadian Government has taken its first step towards (hopefully) restarting its quest to find a suitable replacement for the CF-18. The " CF-18 REPLACEMENT INDUSTRY CONSULTATION QUESTIONNAIRE " was answered by five aerospace companies (Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Saab, Eurofighter, and Dassault) regarding their respected fighters. Earlier reports that the Canadian government may sole-source an "interim" Super Hornet buy were met with sharp criticism (not from me) that doing so would break a Liberal election promise to hold an fair and open fighter competition.  Selecting a sole-source Super Hornet as an interim solution would make it all but inevitable for a full purchase.  Even if a different fighter was selected afterward, the additional costs of operating a diversified fighter fleet would cause financial stress. [NOTE:  I believe the interim Super Hornet idea may have been intentionally "leaked" to gauge reactio...