Quote:
Originally Posted by Harry Lime
My post was not very clear. I was pondering whether having the Gripen as Canada's plane would be of greater benefit to our military commitments because Canada would then bring something to the table that the Americans do not.
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I don't think so. I don't think the Gripen E brings any new capability to the NORAD table that the USAF doesn't already have covered with their current inventory.
As for meeting other commitments around the world...
...well, this is just me thinking and not some government policy, but I think the US and coalitions in general don't want RCAF aircraft for their capabilities
per se. The coalitions and the US want offensive Canadian capabilities to legitimize the operations. Canada, being a generally peaceful and reasoned country, brings a lot of soft power to a coalition. Canadian offensive participation sends a strong message to the global community that a given operation is more justified than it would be if Canada didn't participate. Sending fighters is a relatively quick and low-risk way to do this. If you want to be seen as offensive, you need to employ weapons. I honestly do not see the Americans ever putting Canadian aircraft in a position to employ air-to-air weapons (and it is extremely rare for that to happen), but they will let any country drop air-to-ground weapons.
So, to contribute meaningfully to the coalition at the tactical level we should procure capabilities that the US is short of (hence why we are procuring stand-off weapons and Tactical Air Launched Decoys).
Whether you use F35, F18 or Gripen is irrelevant because all three can be used for the above, although I don't think anyone really wants to use F35s to drop bombs which is why USAF is purchasing F15EX. Thus, theoretically, the USA won't care what plane you use to drop the bombs. In reality, they will want us to buy F-35 or F18 and that shouldn't be a surprise.
I don't know what the statement of requirement says for the future fighter but I suspect all three meet the requirements for the missions asked of the fighter, so it's going to be a political decision, I think. Speaking of political, there is some Swedish government position or law that states its military equipment/weapons can't be exported if it would conflict with Swedish foreign policy. So, it might be possible that SAAB can't export spare parts to us if the Gripen is used in an offensive conflict.