BEST FIGHTER FOR CANADA

Let me get this off my chest...  I hate the term "emerging threats". Those two simple words are a powerful combination.  They are ominous and imply a need for urgency while also being incredibly vague.  What are these threats?  Where are they emerging?  How long do we have until we see them?  Will it be too late once we do? The term is often used when justifying some sort of military largesse, whether it be a cutting edge weapon system or massive building projects .  After all, what better way to combat "emerging threats" than to SIMPLY BE PREPARED FOR ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING. Nothing exemplifies this more than the current United States military.  It is not enough to have the biggest military in the world, but a larger military than the rest of the world combined.   Despite this, there is still the drive to take it even further.  The mere suggestion of a slight reduction is scoffed at.  How could the USN possibly get by w...

As Canada's 151st birthday passes by, Canadians enjoy the usual swell of patriotism.  No wonder, as  our nation is pretty great .  The last two years has found even the least-patriotic Canadians being proud.  Even those curmudgeons have to admit...  " At least we're not the United States." Canada still, and always will, have its share of issues.  That is to be expected.  Unlike some other nations, we still have an air of optimism about us.  Things are good and we hope that we can make them even better. One only has to take a cursory glance at the rest of the world to realize that not everyone shares Canada's optimism.  Not only are people taking a pessimistic view...  But they are looking for someone to blame. It is for this reason that Canadian as a whole must make a renewed commitment to its own sovereignty, lest we get bogged down with the same division. One need only look to our southern neighbor to realize how a nat...

This is an axe. It is simple tool, dating back thousands of years.  It consists of a wooden handle with a sharpened stone fixed to one end.  While this axe is primitive in its origins, it is an ingenious design.  By placing the sharpened stone at the end of long handle, early humans were able to increase the  moment-of-force , allowing the stone to make a much deeper cut than if the stone were held in the hand directly.  This made it great for cutting and bashing things. The stone axe provided early man with an invaluable tool.  Useful as a both a building tool and a weapon, it helped catapult man into the most dominant life-form on the planet. This is also an axe. This  SOG "Fast Hawk" tactical tomahawk  utilizes a 420 stainless steel blade with high tech ballistic polymer handle.  It is sharper, harder, lighter, better-balanced, and comes with a nylon sheath.  It is better than the stone axe in every conceivable way. Bu...

Changing of the guard? Let me make one thing abundantly clear:  I do not consider the Super Hornet to be the "Best Fighter for Canada"™. The Eurofighter Typhoon offers better performance.  As does the Rafale.  The Saab Gripen E/F offers the best bang-for-the buck.  The F-35 is undoubtedly the future.  So why am I so ecstatic about reports that the Super Hornet is on track to become Canada's "interim" fighter? Put simply, the Super Hornet offers a substantial capability upgrade to our aging CF-18 fleet.  While it does not fly faster, nor is it more agile than the current CF-18, it does benefit from a much improved range, payload, and avionic suite.  Best of all, the Super Hornet represents the safest choice.  It is a tried-and-true platform that offers an easy transition. News of an "interim" Super Hornet acquisition is certainly better than no news at all. Some are calling foul, however.  The Liberals did promise to hold a "fair a...

   No...  Wait...  That's  To bias. I am going to take a break from fighter jets for the moment, for reasons that will (hopefully) become clear later in the post. Why do we like the things that we like?  Why do we become so enamored with certain personal choices, whilst berating those that do not agree with us? The answer, of course, is  bias.   Our understanding of the world around us is modified by our own personal life experiences, education, and upbringing.  The value we place on things, be it politics, lifestyle choices, or even basic esthetics are modified by our own cognitive bias.  For example, someone who grew up with a more pragmatic upbringing would likely place less importance on appearance then someone who grew up surrounded by works of fine art and architecture. Simply put, if someone does not agree with you, it is not necessarily because they are less intelligent, more intelligent, or being contradictory, it is b...

"Mine is so much better than yours!" The CF-18, the F-15, the F-4, the F-16...  All of these aircraft could have been described as my "favorite" at one point in time in my adolescent years.  My preference usually coincided with whatever model kit I was building that month.  My reasoning was usually simple; this one looks cooler, this one flies faster, etc.  My fellow base-brat friends and I would argue over which fighter was better, always ending in a stalemate. As I got older, my love affair with military aircraft dwindled as I became more obsessed with sports cars.  Zero-to-sixty times seemed more tangible to someone who just earned his driver's license. If my new-found interest in automobiles was not enough, my passion for fighter aircraft drifted even more after watching coverage of the first Gulf War.  Instead of seeing the tense dogfights similar to those in Top Gun or Iron Eagle , I was subjected to black-and-white footage of smart bombs redu...

Godzilla facepalm.  It's that epic. Late last week, a group representing "over 35" Canadian industrial partners involved with F-35 production carpet bombed  sent a "open letter" to Canadian media outlets.  Predictably, they insist that an actual competition would be unnecessary, expensive, and time consuming.  They also warn of impending doom should Canada delay ordering the Joint Strike Fighter any longer.  Nevermind that these are the same companies that stand to profit from an F-35 selection and are certainly biased. The open letter can be seen here at the Ottawa Citizen  or  here at Canadian Skies magazine .  I'm sure it is available a few more places as well. The "Canadian JSF Industry Group" (CJIG for short) falls back on the same tropes and myths that most F-35 supporters do; claiming that Canada would lose out on billions of dollars worth of work and risk missing out on all that JSF wonderfulness. Right... Let us just go with a...