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Originally Posted by automaton 3
I really can't see anything in the Liberal's platform that would help my family very much, or at all. Some huge spending in there for I'm not sure what gain.
The F-35 cancellation promise is disingenuous IMO...the CF-18s must be replaced, they only have a few years left in their airframes. There is nothing else on the market that compares to the F-35 (F-22s are not for sale). What will the Liberals do if the F-35 wins the competition they are promising? Or will they rig the requirements towards "anything but the F-35" a la the ongoing Sea King fiasco (the Cyclones are STILL not operational).
Meanwhile the taxes on our business would increase. The Liberals seem to be overlooking, or ignoring the fact that many small businesses are incorporated.
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There were a few things that have really bugged me about the F-35 thing.
When we purchased the Cf-18's in 1982 the project cost was a total of 4 billion plus an additional $2.6 billion in fleet upgrade costs not including annual maintenance for $138 planes.
So in terms of 1982 dollars the cost per plane was about $47 million per plane. If I use an inflation claculator that translates to about $109 billion per plane in 2010 dollars.
I don't think that the Liberals understand that other similar fighter planes like the Eurofighter are all in the $100 million dollar range or more and are not nearly as capable as the 35a, and to be honest when you have a small fleet of 65 aircraft you need to have the maximum mix mission capability that money can buy.
There are also no real side benefits of buying european made fighters in terms of economic benefits for our aerospace industry.
The Super hornet would probably be around $57 to $60 million per copy at least, however the JSF is a better plane and more well rounded which we have to take into account if we are buying a fighter that needs to last 20 or 30 years.
My only real dislike about the F-35 and its a biggy but its personal preference is that it runs on one engine instead of 2.