The agency that oversees foreign military sales in Washington gave Canada the green light to buy both single and dual-seat Super Hornets and estimated the price tag for 18 fighters at $6.3 billion.
The American's don't factor in operational cost (fuel, maintenance, armaments) into the cost.
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Basically its the planes and some spare partage, however that price tag was the one approved by the US State Department for the Sale of the aircraft. So I doubt it has anything to do with usage, ordinance or anything like that.
When I read the original article it mentioned State department approval at 6. some billion for 18, I assumed it was US currency. So taking that into account, these plains are still costing us about $294 million dollar per plane.
Even with those add-on's that a horrible deal.
Even the missile loads are minimal with 100 Aim-9 sidewinders which cost about $630,000 each. Its like throwing in a Tim Horton's $5.00 gift card when you buy a new car.
The funny thing is we buy these planes at the $294 million dollar tag. The F-22 was only $330 million dollars.
This comes down to stupid pride by the Liberals, when Trudeau opened his mouth and said they'd never buy the F-35, they went to Boeing who saw them coming and jacked up the price tag, like they did on other Super Hornet deals.
If they go through with this deal, it comes down to two things, that Boeing backed off on putting a spear through the heart of Quebec's pride and joy in Bombardier and the Liberal's will thank Boeing by letting themselves get raped on this program.
Second the Liberals can't admit they they're wrong, and they're going to allowed themselves to be taken advantage of by Boeing.
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Last edited by CaptainCrunch; 09-21-2017 at 01:22 PM.
The other question that the Liberals should be asking is why Boeing sold 24 Super Hornets to Kuwait for $4 billion dollars US, and we're getting 6 less fighters for 2 billion more?
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It's all about optics, just like when the Liberals cancelled the EH-101, and bascially rigged the follow-on competition so the EH-101 wouldn't win again.
My worry is that they will go ahead with the 18 "interim" Super Hornets and then will keep kicking the F-35 can down the road as our Classic Hornets time out.
I am glad that they did a better analysis of the fighter fleet size (88) though, and moved off the Conservative's number (65), which was far too low.
The other question that the Liberals should be asking is why Boeing sold 24 Super Hornets to Kuwait for $4 billion dollars US, and we're getting 6 less fighters for 2 billion more?
I think the Kuwait sale is for 40 aircraft (32xE and 8xF). Nonetheless, here is a comparison of specific equipment in each offer but not the other:
Canada
twenty (20) Multifunctional Information Distribution Systems–Joint Tactical Radio System (MIDS-JTRS);
twenty-two (22) AN/AYK-29 Distributed Targeting System (DTS);
High Speed Video Network (HSVN) Digital Video Recorder (HDVR);
Kuwait
forty-eight (48) Link-16 Systems;
eight (Conformal Fuel Tanks; and
fourteen (14) AN/ASQ-228 ATFLIR Systems.
Command Launch Computer (CLC) for Air to Ground Missile 88 (AGM-88);
I am certainly no expert as to what all of those items cost, but I can tell you that the MIDS-JTRS is a Type 1 radio information system like Link-16, but a more modern standard. The NSA would never let Kuwait get its hands on that, and anything that is Type 1 is also not cheap.
Another question to ask is why would we buy 8 'F' variants? The 'F' variant is designed for a Weapons Officer in the back; it is not designed to be a trainer. I suspect that our government's intent would be to use them as trainers anyway. If so, that quantity is out of whack for 18 air frames. Unless, of course, the Liberals have decided that they will purchase 88 Super Hornets as the replacement. In that case, the eight dual-seaters makes more sense at this time.
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former Serbian paramilitary commander with Australian dual citizenship has been sentenced to 15 years in jail for war crimes.
Dragan Vasiljkovic, also known as "Captain Dragan", was convicted of torturing prisoners and a deadly attack on a village during the Croatian war of independence in the early 1990s.
He had been living in Australia prior to his extradition to Croatia in 2015.
Vasiljkovic, 62, was convicted by a court in the town of Split on Tuesday.
The court heard that Vasiljkovic had directed his subordinates to torture captured Croat soldiers in a makeshift prison he had set up in the rebel Serb stronghold of Knin.
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If the cost of buying these used jets is any more then $60 million per plane our government needs to be fired into the sun for putting their political pride over doing the actual right thing.
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$60M per? That would be a ridiculous number. Somewhere around 20 would be much more realistic. These jets are going to be high hour and practically used up. They could require a structural upgrade, something we've done to our fleet a couple of times. I would expect they will cost a couple mil per plane just to convert to Canadian use. Do they even expect o use all of them, or are half of them for parts?
This is an odd move, and there are some interesting scenarios if they go this way, but in the end I think it's a waste of money.
If these jets replace our fleet then as far as fighter capability goes we don't get very far ahead, maybe gain 1 or 2 thousand hours of life per plane. Our current fleet becomes trainers or maybe replaces the Snowbirds? Or do they become parts planes?
Yeah I was throwing a number out there off of my butt. Since the Canadian Government was willing to pay about $350 million per for new, the Austrailians would be like the slicked back hair open to the naval shirt greasy 1970's used car sales man seeing a sucker walking into the lot.
Even at $20 million its a lousy deal since Lockheed Martin is offering the F-35 at between $80 and $85 million bucks.
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As per the Arms Export Control Act, the USA has to approve the sale of the Oz jets to Canada.
Now, in normal times, this probably wouldn't be an issue. In today's climate? I suppose the USA could play hard ball and, perhaps, that's what we need them to do.
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Agreed. And I’m on record for not supporting the F35 in the past. But given that bombardier is a dumpster fire (was hoping they could build the rafale here), the fact that the govt is obsessed with the super hornet (inferior plane with a lot of issues) I think it’s time to just call a spade a spade and buy the damn F35.
Agreed. And I’m on record for not supporting the F35 in the past. But given that bombardier is a dumpster fire (was hoping they could build the rafale here), the fact that the govt is obsessed with the super hornet (inferior plane with a lot of issues) I think it’s time to just call a spade a spade and buy the damn F35.
I don't know why Trudeau can't just stand up and say, "I was wrong when I promised not to buy the F-35". Politicians break promises all the time, I don't see why this should be any different.
Even if he says "let's open a competition to find the best plane, even if it ends up being the F-35", that's fine. I would respect him more for admitting he was wrong.
But this whole exercise of buying an "interim" fighter to fill a "capability gap", Super Hornet or otherwise, is just ridiculous. Especially when the Air Force has said there is no "capability gap".
I say just tell the politicians to butt out, give the Air Force a budget, and let them buy whatever the hell they want. It's going to be their plane, let them decide which one it should be!
Loved that plane, it just looked mean, and it was one of the first model airplanes that I ever built, later I built a F-16, a Tomcat, and a Mig-21.
Faster then hell and originally designed as a high level interceptor, somebody had the brilliant idea of taking a inherantly unstable aircraft and turning it into a air to ground platform.
It was also part of Canada's nuclear strike package and could carry air to ground and air to air missiles.
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