F35.....are they a waste of money??

[eclipse1966]

maybe the government should start to listen to the people instead of their egos.


F35 - YouTube

 

[underdog]

I think the old guy at the end there said it best. We don't need those. We never have.

 

[eclipse1966]

I think it is good to have updated jets but I think they should have looked at other options as well.

 

[what_next]

i say the F-22 would of been a better option

 

[Rneddel]

lets put that money to extract diesel

 

[byronkentgraham]

lets put that money to extract diesel

Or we could double the price of clear diesel fuel. I bet that would clear the "shortage" right up

 

[barleyfarmer]

Why do we need them?The f 18's have been fine for the couple of bombs we are Told to drop by the US I mean UN!Our government is the easiest pushover I've ever seen!!Weren't they talked into buying used submarines that either didn't work or needed a whole shi...ad of work!!These idiots don't realize if we start sticking our nose in other countries business like the states does it will bring the terrorists here or Canadians will be hated all around the world like the Americans!!Maybe control our own borders against all our oil flowing south that maybe the price of fuel will drop instead of buying new jets when even military guys are saying the old ones work fine for what we need them for!!!

 

[Summiteer]

We don't ever fight anyone with air or decent anti air capability anyway. Use F-18's to protect our airspace. You could bomb the countries that we go into with a friggin' Sopwith Camel. If they are going to spend money, buy heavy lift and close air support equipment. Protect the troops on the ground.

 

[carguy]

When the CF-18's were chosen back in the late 1970's/early 1980's the F-18 was specifically chosen (in competition with F15/F16/F14/F111) over the lighter, cheaper F-16 because the military wanted a bigger jet with both air superiority & ground attack capability. At the time the F-16 was touted & developed as an air superiority fighter only, whose ground attack capability came with development many years later. The F-18 had a larger & better radar & most important was twin engine's. The military wanted twin engine (safety) for our pilots who fly over vast sparsely settled areas in the north.

Now compare to the F-35, it has one engine which goes against former requirements. The radar while advanced in many ways isn't as big or see quite as far. Communication capability with the F35's are no where near the CF-18's ablities since their last upgrade. Apparently the F35 radio's wont have satellite capability for as long as 10 years, leaving the F35's without radio capability in our north. Payload & fuel loads are decreased in part due to "stealth" technology.

I don't understand how the F35 is the best choice, it is the latest generation of fighter (5th generation) like the F22, which the US will likely never develop past its first production levels due in part to cost. The F35 is in some ways more technologically advanced than the F22 and the F35 will continue to develop further. That said, what other choices for new fighters are there? The French Rafale or British/German Eurofighter, both 4th generation fighters, the Swedish Gripen or Russian technology such as the Su35, etc. It appears Canada does not want to buy into the 4th generation of fighters, holding out for the 5th gen. Not unlike buying a brand new 2 year old Polaris IQ chassis mtn sled over the new Pro-RMK. Is the F35 a waste? Imo not really but considering what it brings to the table, a 4th generation may be a better buy until we see more 5th generation fighters develop. But I doubt we'll see fighter development on a scale like the past since most of the companies don't exist anymore, there's less choice today.

 

[fargineyesore]

They want stealth technology because anti-air weapons are getting to the point that the survivability of a non-stealth aircraft in a combat environment is questionable these days. That being said, I agree that they should keep the F-18 until a less expensive, twin-engine aircraft with stealth technology is developed. The F-22 is simply too expensive, but if you buy a newer non-stealth aircraft, you're going to have to buy more of them because of the increased loss factor because of the non-stealth factor.

 

[Oldtrick]

Couldn't agree more barleyfarmer, keep that black $hit here and we can go back to $10/wages cause we won't need to produce squat.
And lets keep our grain here too, put those rig grunts to work grinding wheat for our bread, after all, they'll need a job right?