Quote:
Originally Posted by dammage79
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/f-35...port-1.2666758
This article here thinks it favors the F-35 as well but also says nothing is certain yet.
Canada really needs to do this right and take the proper steps. Thats a boat load of money to toss around on something that is almost a write off with the delays and problems its having.
They need to hold an open competition IMO, theres a CBC news story that also made sense as it also says that these procurements also need to create Canadian jobs, and lots of them.
Its a shame Eurofighter and Dassault won't even get the chance to try and sell their tested and successful product. You know, the planes that are actually out there doing things.
7 years behind, the problems are piling higher and faster on the F-35. The price tag, even if its a tad cheaper now.
Why the hell wouldn't you shop around? makes no sense.
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The biggest issue is that we know Canada needs to buy an airframe to last them 40 years. The other fighters in a open competition will be obsolete long before, at least the F35 with its bleeding edge technology will still be somewhat ok for that time frame. The F35 was also selected with the low numbers in mind, in theory you can do more with less with the f35 and have a better inter operability with NATO.
As China and Russia and India and Pakistan are all working towards a next gen fighter platform its logical that Canada buys a next generation fighter.
If you take into account inflation Canada's f-18 purchase was a similar cost.
As for the troubles list people are all too easily combining all the problems of three different f-35's and claiming that its problems with all of the aircraft. The main problem right now with the Canadian variant which is a problem across the aircraft is with the flight helmet, but that's a solvable issue and problems have been getting reduced with that.
I think the F-35 is still the smartest choice for a Airforce that holds onto fighters for more then a generation.