RE:Buying the F-18 rather than the F-35On Politics....
Respectfully, the Mulroney governemnt made the first Helicopter contract commitment mere months (weeks?) before being thrown out of office... down to 2 seats! against the recommendation of multiple opposition parties. It may well have been a trick designed to primot the liberals to say they woudl cancel it and then get stuck with the consequences.
I have no opinion on the best helicopter, but beleivie it was inappropriate for Mulroney to sign a contract when the next government could have done so after their own DD without making the issue political.
The X-35 issue is even more fruiaght with difficulties, but has played out probably as it should. Concerns about the skyrocketing costs were and are legitimate. Does Canada need that level of capability, at that cost? Again a serious Defense issue is beign politicized by the Conservatives.
I am trying to refrain from speaking about chronic procurement failures of the last 10 years leaving the navy in particular at the lowest capability in my lifetime. While governing through the last bubble of a doomed era.
Attempts to link this issue to the Fed's attitude toward Bombardier is laughable. About as logical as saying "I don't like cheese so let's boycott GM".... or, "these shoes hurt so I will never eat pork again!"
gobomber wrote: This might be a political move by the Liberal Government Buying 18 Hornets for $1.2B amounts to $70M per plane. The Conservative Government wanted to buy 65 F-35 for $6.2B which amounts to $100M per plane.
There is no question that the F-35 is a much better plane from many point of views than the F-18 which is a 40 year old design although it has the latest avionic on board. The F-18 design is older than most pilots flying this plane
I often questioned the need for the F-35 as we rarely have an acitive role in wars where the latest technology is important. Were we fighting against a country like Russia then the F-35 would be a must buy. But to bomb the talibans or ISIS, or to intercept a passenger jet who,s pilot went rogue, one does not need an F-35.
This being said, when comparing the two planes, the F-35 is a much better plane and is certainly worth the extra $30M per plane.
We are back to the same situation we were when the Chretien Liberal Government cancelled the contract for the procurement of Naval helicopters and it cost the Government over $1B to break the contract and we got nothing for it.. However, shortly thereafter we needed to put another contract in place to buy Naval helicopter at almost twice the price.