Billion dollar lemons?

[Tugela]

http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/f-35s-face-communication-problems-in-arctic-3
So, apparently our shiny new fighters can't communicate properly with satelites in the north.

And that capabilty won't be added until at least 2019, and maybe not even that soon.

Great.

Hope we don't get into any wars before then, allthough, we all know the real reason for buying these things is to help the US fight their wars.

 

[Ray]

The F-18E/F 'Super Hornet' would have been a much better deal. Fully compatible with our existing fleet, but a much more advanced avionics package. Modular design, so future upgrades could have been incorporated easier.

 

[storm rider]

The F-18E/F 'Super Hornet' would have been a much better deal. Fully compatible with our existing fleet, but a much more advanced avionics package. Modular design, so future upgrades could have been incorporated easier.

I have said it before and I will say it again.....If Canada had produced the Avro Arrow BITD then right now Canada would be the world leader/manufacturer/exporter of state of the art/leading technology jet fighters.......cripes we could have produced something like the "Firefox" 10 years before the USA designed the F-111 stealth fighter.....sadly though the Avro Arrow got scrapped/tanked in favour of sucking up to the USA and installing the D.E.W line across our northern border with the U.S.S.R of cold war history.

With regards to the new F-35's.....I see no flaw for the planes.....yeah there might be a communication problem with regards to air time in the arctic but I seriously doubt the whole fleet of less than 100 F-35's would be able to hold off an invasion by Soviet aircraft if they did not have a GPS problem........good thing the government/DOD is not making the decision based on that.

Yeah the new fighters are pricey....it is a fuck of a lot better than money down the drain for cancelled helicopter contracts and it is a way better deal than buying used submarines.

SR

 

[Ray]

Kinda nitpicky about details..

A Firefox is a Mig-31, the F-111 isn't stealth, it is a 1970's design. The F-117 is stealth.

The Avro Aero got cancelled because the conventional thinking at the time was that fighter aircraft were going to become obsolete in the missile age. It was also too expensive for Canada to produce on it's own, and other allies such as the US and the UK would not commit to such an expensive aircraft due to the prevailing mindset regarding the onset of the missile age.

But yes, if it had proceeded, we would have had an advance, established aircraft design and manufacturing industry.

 

[Tugela]

Any air space we have to defend will be in the north, so communication issues will be a big deal. A heart of a combat plane is it's systems, and if some of those can't do the job the plane is an expensive white elephant. The cost of the F35s is their stealth ability, but you mostly need that for offensive operations, not defensive operations (you want to mimimize detection times on offence when you are vulnerable to countermeasures so that the enemy does not have time to counter with a defence). Basically Canada doesn't need these planes since we are unlikely to fight any offensive wars (not against any nation capable of defending itself anyway). We would be better served with cheaper avionics fitted out with superior weapons systems.