Canada hits the eject button on F-35

Someone please explain to me how the hell 65 fighters can cost $30 BILLION dollars? That's real dollars, not those crappy US greenbacks. We could've bought a couple Nimitz carriers for that, with air wings!

Well, back to the drawing board, I guess. Maybe we'll look at Typhoons or Superbugs.

There's an hilarious mistake in the diagram with all the fighters drawn face to face.

Here : http://nationalpostnews.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/na1201_fighterjets1500.jpg

Apparently the T-50 has a ceiling of 20,000 Kilometers. That's going to kick some asses... Alien ones, that is.

Scratch alien invasion from the list of reason humans are going to go extinct, boys and girls.

And the chinese J-20 barely manages 2000 meters. Awww, how cute...

Aaaand the super hornet is NOT a super hornet in the drawing, but that's trivial...

Could always get some cheap Chinese J-11s from Walmart

Yeah, the frontal view of the F-18 was the 1st thing I noticed.

Also, I'm not suggesting for a moment that playing in the big leagues isn't expensive, or that 30 year operating costs aren't costly. But $30 billion dollars! I bet 60+ Super Hornets would be half the price. Canada does NOT require F-35s in my opinion. If anything, F-22s would have been a better choice if the US would let us buy them.

That is Lifecycle cost... Over 36 years. That is cheap for what you will be getting. The F-35 is a revolutionary aircraft, and will change what we know about Tac Air for future generations.

-Skater

No, they'll only sell F-22s to their friends.

Now if Norway would just follow Canada.

Hmm... For a long time I thought that the anti-F-35-lobby would slowly fade away after the introduction of the airplane. Remember the extremly expensive F-14, costing a wooping 38 million USD (1998) ! After a few years in service the crtitic had more or less disappeared, and instead it was noted what a huge leap it was in capability compared to the F-4. However, I'm slowly starting to think that maybe the F-35 wont go the same way. But otoh, what else is there to be offered? The Eurocanards? The PAK-FA? J-20?

Australia and Japan are still buying a mess of them.

Australia also has SuperBugs already, and Canada was about to get them I thought? (to replace aging Legacy hornets)

The Super Hornet could be obsolete in a couple of decades, while the F-35 is going to be in use for the next 40+ years. We will probably wind up replacing them, or whatever else we choose, with F-35s.
Through the whole mess of criticism of the F-35 in the Canadian press, I haven't once seen a comparison of life cycle cost for any other type. We've spent $20 billion on the CF-18s through the years, so I doubt that the competitors are much better - not to mention all the other capabilities that come with the F-35.

There's something tempting about buying a few thousand Mig-23s instead, so long as you guys do a "full fleet" flyover at airshows. I'd buy a ticket for that.

According to this article, the deal is not definitely dead, but is being reviewed and alternative aircraft are being considered:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/12/06/poli-f35-pmo-government-fighter-jets.html

To hell with planes, too much muss, too much fuss.

It's time for ICBMs, and give both launch keys to Don Cherry.

with the maple leafs record the last 10 years, they bomb every year already, no need for nukes.

Maybe they will get Silent Hornets with the conformal fuel tanks and improved engines? Though the stealth part seems rather worthless on the Super Hornet so perhaps they can drop that to save money.

Single engine plane for Canada is purely stupid. Distance between airport/landing strips are HUGE. you can't glide 300nm is something goes wrong ...

They didn't hit the eject button, and I doubt they'll actually change the jet. This is a waste of money; there is no competition for the F-35. The Typhoon is about as expensive and less stealthy. The Superbug is a generation or at least half a generation behind the F-35. It will be out-dated well before the F-35. What's the point?

No, it isn't stupid. That single engine is more reliable than two CF-18 engines. It is also more powerful.