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Originally Posted by FlameyMcFlameFace
I'm also pissed off with the purchase of used fighter jets from Australia. We are a first world country, it just seems unacceptable.
With that said, I want to know the final price that we paid for these 18 jets to tie us over. Ill reserve most of my judgements until then.
However I do feel like the positive we will gain out of this is Canada will seriously look at the European competitors to the F-35. I have no fighter jet knowledge, but from the research I gathered the Saab Gripen and Dassault Rafale/Eurofighter look like worthy options for Canada's needs.
If after all this and we still end up buying a full fleet of F-35's, I am just going to shake my head at our government.
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The Saab Grippen and Rafale/Eurofighters aren't in the same class as the F-35. They're on an curve to obsolescence that will occur long before their Canadian Air Force retirement date.
If we're going to a strategy of a smaller airforce with another 30 year + life cycle then you buy as up to date as you can.
Besides.
The second production run of the F-35 is expected to come in at a cost of about $80 million per plane
The Eurofighter is price tagged at about $105,000,000 per plane
The Rafale is a 30 year old design with a cost of nearly $90 million per plane
Saab Gripen is about $70 million US
And for the cost difference none of them compete with the F-35 capabilities.
So we save $10 million dollars a plane for the Saab over 30 years and it will basically lag behind the F-35 badly.
The Rafale and the eurofighter are just as much or more and far less capable in terms of future use.
If there is a fair competition for future fighter jets, its going to be the F-35. But I don't expect that its going to be a fair competition.