TECHNOLOGY --- F35 and Trudeau dithering

How ironic.

Canadians last week on November 11 join together in mourning and grief to  commemorate the 100th Remembrance Day.

In every town and city there were mass processions to local war memorials, speeches, wreaths and the playing of the Last Post.

In Ottawa, the ceremony included a 21 gun salute, the wailing of bagpipes and an overhead  pass over by five  F18 fighter jets.

Numerous national and  government officials were prominently in attendance and all gave thanks to those who gave up their lives or came back "maimed in body,mind and soul" --  after fighting in the name of  Canada for our values of liberty, democracy, and peace:  in WW1, WW2, the Korean War and more recent missions  including Afghanistan.

Yet, at the same time --  and for three long years now -- our current Liberal government continues to dither and delay and simply try to find excuses NOT to supply our air force with the best equipment needed for the survival of our pilots and aircrews, and the success of their missions: in a world of high tech ground to air missiles and new air to air weapons.

Only the F35 Lightning fighter -- with its unique stealth design which makes it invisible to ground and airplane radar -- can meet the dual goals of crew survival and mission success.

The previous Harper Conservative government understood this and signed on to make the F35 the replacement for our 40 year old and militarily dated F18s (first flight =1978). Canada thereby joined the US, U.K., Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Turkey and Israel.

But since taking power in 2015, the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau has backtracked on this commitment seeking cheaper alternatives.

It has therefore opened the 'competition' again to three European jet makers and America’s Boeing.

To make these jets eligible, the Liberals have played around with the criteria and mission specifications for our next generation fighters, but these maneuvers have faltered on the required communication system.

 As a member of NORAD, Canadian jet fighters and ground command must be able to coordinate activities with US forces and so must speak the same highly encrypted and secure 'language'.

Canada is also part of the 5 Eyes co-ordination group of US., Britain, Australia and New Zealand who share military intelligence.

As a consequence of these two related requirements, the Dassault of France has withdrawn its Rafale jet from the competition.

In fact, no European manufacturer can meet these key requirements: including the Swedish Gripen and the last European entry, the Typhoon.

  

So the ‘competition is solely the F 35 Lightning II and American Boeing’s SuperHornet.

As the communication requirements should have been obvious to our government and military from the start, this ‘open competition’ is clearly a sham.

More importantly, saving money on a cheaper alternative that is ‘almost comparable’ to the F 35 has long been Liberal mantra when in opposition.

The data summary below (based on Wikipedia entries) tells it all:   

	First flight	Current price US millions	Number produced to date	Stealth design
F 35 Lightning II	2006	89.2 - 100	320+	YES
F 18 SuperHornet	1995	70.5	600	NO
Gripen	1988	30 - 60	247	NO
Rafale	1991	80 - 90	121   (total as of 2012)	NO
Typhoon	1994	101 - 120	623	NO

Fact 1:  No other jet fighter in the world has comparable stealth technology to the F35 Lightning II.

Fact 2: Every alternative to the F35 is at least a decade to 2 decades older design technology than the F35.

Fact 3:  Surprisingly, only the Gripen is substantially cheaper. The old Typhoon and Rafale are still comparably priced to the F35 with the SuperHornet just somewhat cheaper.  

Finally, the U.S. will be replacing its entire fleet – including SuperHornets -- with some 3,000 F35 Lightnings!

So will Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government --  to save money by buying 'antiques'  -- be willing to sacrifice the lives of Canadian airmen -- and the success of future missions --  against any enemy ready to fight us with state-of-the- art weapons and not just sticks and stones?

I foresee the day when Justin Trudeau or a successor will proclaim a formal apology – probably on a November 11 -- for allowing our soldiers-in-the-air to be slaughtered in combat --  and missions failed -- because our current government was too cheap to do the right thing.

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See G&M Nov 7, 2018 pageA6. "European fighter jet maker pulls out of competition to replace CF -18s"