BEST FIGHTER FOR CANADA

For those of you who responded with concern to last week's question about possibly buying the Chinese J-31:  No, I am not experimenting with any recreational pharmaceuticals (any more than usual). The majority of you (71%)  think I am possibly off my rocker for suggesting Canada would ever consider non-NATO hardware.  You are probably right.  Still, the point of these "What ifs" is to promote blue-sky thinking without limits. Since we are approaching the holiday season, this week's question lets you write a letter to Santa.  What kind of fighter would you like to see under the RCAF's tree this year?   Do not be shy. Want a resurrected and modernized Arrow?  Ask away. Should the elves start building the F-22 again? How about the YF-23?  Lots of kids seem to be wishing for that one! Maybe just a "Canadianized" F-35 that works (and costs) as it should? Carriers? Something else?  Please comment below.

ShenYang J-31 Another close vote for last week's "What if".  At 37%, the Gripen is the most favored choice for a possible interim fighter for Canada.  Two other options, the Rafale and Super Hornet are almost tied at 26% and 25% respectively.  No love for used Typhoons or other choices, however. This week's "What if?" goes into completely different territory.  Of all the "What ifs" presented here, it is the most improbable.  No, I have not last my damn mind (that happened long ago).  The whole point of these scenarios is to open up our minds and consider everything, so why not go completely off the deep end? China does not have a good reputation when it comes to building combat aircraft.  For the most part, their expertise seems to be in designing home-grown versions of Russian aircraft .   China has been combatting this reputation, however. Knock-off? While some have dismissed the Chengdu J-10 as a knock off of the stillborn IAI L...

Old n' busted...  New hotness. It looks like the majority of you agree with my preference for a mixed fighter fleet consisting of Gripens (61%) and Super Hornets (43%).  Surprisingly, the F-35 would be the third choice (at 28%) for a mixed fighter fleet.  Neither the Typhoon (16%) or Silent Eagle (14%) got much attention, but the Rafale (at 24%) did.  I would argue that the Rafale is well-rounded enough that it would not really need  a second fighter type to back it up. Today's "What If" poses a similar question, albeit with a major difference.  Instead of picking two fighters and moving on, we will merely pick out a single fighter as a "bridge" to shore up the RCAF fighter fleet until the F-35 (or whatever) arrives.  This is similar to what the RAAF has done when it selected the Super Hornet as an "interim" fighter to make up for the delay in its F-35 acquisition. The federal governement has already stated that they will extend the life of...

The USN's and Australia's future fighters. If Canada were to go it alone in building its next fighter, we should challenge the JSF marketing machine head-on.  That is what 46% of you believe, anyway.  While the medium-sized multirole fighter won out, it did not get a clear majority.  19% of you think we would be better off developing a smaller, cheaper aircraft, while  34% of you think that Canada should go big or go home. This goes to show, you cannot please everybody. Or can you? Instead of taking a "one size fits all" mentality, Canada could hedge its bets by operating a mixed fleet of fighters.  I have advocated for this before , and I still believe it allows the most flexibility.  I am not alone in my belief here, as most of the world's major air forces operate at least two front-line fighters. In 20 years, some of the largest fighter fleets around the world will look like this: USAF:  F-22, F-35A, F-15E USN:  F/A-18E/F, EA-1...

Thanks to everybody who voted in last week's "What if..." poll.  The results were pretty straight forward.  A staggering 81% of you believe that the F-35 is the wrong fighter for Canada no matter what the price. Yikes. The inspiration for this week's "What if..." comes from BF4C's new cover picture.  (I got a request to take down the Voodoo...)  The CF-100 Canuck remains Canada's only indigenous fighter design to make production.  While it certainly is not the sexiest aircraft design, it is still fondly remembered for its ruggedness and longevity.  The "Clunk" even managed to find a foreign buyer with Belgium. It really is too bad that Canada's fighter industry died with the CF-100's successor, the CF-105 Arrow. Right now, Canada's fighter selection is rather limited in variety.  While there is a substantial quantity  of choices, the quality leaves a bit to be desired.  Even including two aircraft that are not offici...

Without a doubt, the JSF's largest stumbling block so far is cost .  Sure, it has other issues, but cost always seems to make it to the top of the list of things that need to be fixed. But what if the F-35 was a bargain? From the start of the JSF program, an emphasis has been (supposedly) placed on affordability.  After all, this is the aircraft that is supposed to replace the F-16 as the predominant fighter of the Western world.  Realistically, it cannot do that if it is beyond the fiscal reach of its potential customers. There has been a recent effort to put "affordability" back into the JSF program .  Mind you, a 2-4% reduction in price is nowhere near enough, but it is a good start.  Time will tell if Lockheed Martin will be able to make good on its promise to reduce F-35 prices down to "4th generation equivalents" . If this could be done, it would silence a lot of the JSF's critics. What if the F-35A Lightning II could be purchased for th...

Things are getting a little hectic in my "real life" right now, so I will not be able to as much time to the blog as I would like for the next month or so. I will still do my best to post whenever I can, and I will be keeping a close eye on what could be a back-alley deal to commit Canada to an F-35 purchase . I will continue "Mythbuster Mondays"...  Just maybe not every Monday.  They take a fair amount of time to write, and I find it increasingly hard to get the hours at the keyboard required. Just because I will not be around so much does not mean that the conversation should stop, however. First of all, I would encourage everyone (who hasn't already) to join the discussion on the Facebook group .  There is a lot of good stuff on there posted by a bunch of great people far smarter than myself.  It is a closed group, but access is given to anybody with a legitimate Facebook account.  (Don't bother if all you want to do is sell discount sunglasse...