CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE – Canada Style

Early April Fool’s – or just fools?

The last few days has seen a revival of the Avro Arrow Jet fighter concept in Ottawa – and all sanity again has been lost outside of the Federal government. (See G&M Sept. 11, 2012, A3).

Retired Major General Lewis McKenzie, has been promoting the revival of the    60 year old, Canadian built (prototype) Avro Arrow jet fighter as a ‘better’ solution than the still-in-development and costly U.S. F35 to which the Canadian government has been committed for some 5 years now.

The government has politely rejected the Arrow suggestion, correctly pointing out the late 1950’s design is not suitable for modern, ‘stealth’ technology warfare.

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To even suggest the Avro Arrow --  a plane model that was never tested in real, daily use but only as a ‘prototype’ --  is better than any military aircraft that has been designed in the last 60 years, let alone the most recent and innovative – i.e., F35 category – is LUDICROUS to the point of being a bad joke.

Retired Major General McKenzie is an army man, not a air force pilot,  and his suggestions must be making air squadron pilots – current and past – either gagging in shock or laughing their heads off!!

For members of the opposition – or even the G&M which ran 2 stories which simply ‘reported the facts’ – not to check with any aviation experts on the Arrow revival first is embarrassing and gives credence to this loony concept.

Moreover, to abandon the F35 plane is far more than changing aircraft, as I have stated long ago on this site, when the ‘high costs’ first became political fodder for the irresponsible opposition.

Here are the key points in brief:

1.     The F35 is a NATO project designed to meet NATO intervention in future conflicts similar to Kosovo and more recently Libya.  These locations had poor anti-aircraft defenses which made NATO air superiority easy, but in all likelihood future missions will probably be against better ground missile defenses or face ‘super stealth’ Russian (now called T-50)  and  Chinese interception jets (models J-20, J-21 and new J-31) also under development. 

 

So:

Ø To opt out of the signed agreement for the F35 is to essentially to opt out of NATO.

 

Ø To rely on old and inferior plane technology for the future is to doom our pilots, their missions and, maybe, Canada itself.

 

2.     The opposition’s claims of ‘cost overruns’ are ridiculous in and of themselves. Any extra development costs are to be paid by the U.S.A. as the primary developer.  That was the deal!  

Also, for opponents of the government to claim “parts and maintenance cost”--for the next 20-25 year life expectancy of the plane -- should be included in the publically stated price is NEVER DONE by any government for any purchase, nor by any private company.  The cost of a Boeing 747 publically quoted in the press does not include the maintenance and parts costs for the next 2 decades.  Nor does Bombardier include these costs when promoting its Canadian made planes, subway cars or trains.

 

Ø No one does this!! So for opposition party members to clamour about this is the worst form of hack demagoguery and misleading of the public.

 

3.     If Retired Major General McKenzie is concerned about good jobs for the Canadian aviation industry, he need not worry.  All F35 member countries  were guaranteed a share of the parts and systems production up front.  Canadian factories and engineers will be kept busy - as they already are - in the process, and so too maintenance and part services.

 

I do not know if retired Major General thinks we need a new, mid-September, April Fool’s day, but in I my eyes at least he has become a ‘joker’ at best and a fool at worst.

Finally, for the silly Arrow idea to be re-launched publically on September 10 and September 11,  the anniversary of 9/11 attacks, is particularly shameful and an embarrassment. Today, the risk of conventional airplane attack and needed defenses is more clear than any time since Pearl Harbour.

It is not the time to put our heads in the sand of the past, but to prepare rationally for the future.

The F35, Russian now labelled T-50, and China’s similar creation (prototypes J-20, J-21 and now J-31) are the future; the Avro Arrow a quixotic piece of dangerous, Canadian nostalgia.