Quote:
Originally Posted by FlameOn
I don't think the government is sacrificing ice breaker support at all... We just had a new Polar class ice breaker announced in 2008 and another Arctic Patrol Ship project with 8 ships in 2007. Mind you 9 ice breakers isn't going to be enough, but its proportional to what we can afford along with the fighters.
What I'm saying here is the economics of re-opening tender on the fighter contract probably do not make sense at this point given the change in technology going forward given the additional hidden costs with a new process, tender, lost jobs pulling out of the F-35 and cancellation penalties while still ending up with an inferior product.
Stealth is not only useful in air superiority, its also with missile sites and ground troop support. If our ground troops are somewhere, need fire support and there's a SAM site nearby, lot better chances of taking out the SAM if you have stealth. Say detection ranges are 200km for a F-18, you'd only be looking at 20-ishkm for an F-35... That could be the difference between getting help for the troops vs get shot down.
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Based on your example, a drone would be cheaper and just as effective.