BEST FIGHTER FOR CANADA

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...

Thanks, PasserBy, for the reminder.  In my "Mythbuster: Foreign Fighters" piece, I erroneously mentioned that Canada never operated a non-US jet fighter.  It turns out I completely forgot about the deHavilland Vampire! My apologies. (It was way back in 1947...)

A link to this was posted in the "Experts" edition of Mythbusters.  It warrants being placed front and center. I wish there were more representation for the other fighters (Rafale, Typhoon, and Gripen) but its a good debate.  Two former CF-18 pilots (neither of which is employed by a manufacturer) with differing opinions on what Canada's next fighter should be. Thanks Super Rhinoceront for the link!

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...

Captain Buster was never one to say know to a free lunch, especially lately.  As his financial planner was fond of telling him, Captain Buster was much better at flying a CF-18 than managing his debt.  While he was not exactly starving, his bank statements were not exactly heartwarming. Besides, Captain Buster was looking forward to catching up with his old buddy, who had left the RCAF to join the private sector.  Vought-Republic, one of the biggest defense contractors around, was picking up the lunch bill today.  What Buster did not realize was that his friend would be bringing a co-worker... "Thanks for meeting with us today, Buster.  It's great seeing you again." "Yeah, it really is good to have a chance to catch up.  How has civvy life treating you?" "Really good!  I've just made junior vice-president.  You should see my office, it's got a great view of the city." "Wow." "Let me introduce you to the man res...