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Canada is perfectly happy to not have functioning hardware for extended periods of time. Especially now that it has entered a far more isolationist stance unde

Canada is perfectly happy to not have functioning hardware for extended periods of time. Especially now that it has entered a far more isolationist stance under Trudeau (in terms of military involvement).

gaius 9y ago
It's funny, most people in the rest of the world don't even think Canada has a military. What do the Mounties need with F18s? I am sure the Eurofighter consortium would be happy to take an order for some Typhoons tho'...
- kogepathic 9y ago
  > I am sure the Eurofighter consortium would be happy to take an order for some Typhoons tho'... Sweden has a Gripen I'm sure they would love to sell. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_JAS_39_Gripen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_JAS_39_Gripen
- rconti 9y ago
  It seems like it would be an insanely huge task to start doing military contracts with a new supplier, get new parts, train servicemembers how to maintain the new planes, and deal with countless pieces of support equipment and infrastructure and software designed for one plane. Then again, I really have no idea -- perhaps there are so few commonalities between an F/A-18 and an F-35 that it's just as easy to switch to another vendor.
  - gaius 9y ago
    There are barely any commonalities between F35 variants despite what was promised, it's another debacle of that programme.
alexasmyths 9y ago
I have first-hand experience with this and this is really a significant problem and it's not a joke. We are definitely not 'perfectly happy' - it 100% affects operational capabilities, including putting lives at risk - we operate without proper air support in some scenarios, finally the previous government faced the problem and bought some Chinooks (ironically from Boeing). Trudeau is different only in tone from previous governments with respect to foreign engagement. In pragmatic reality our military involvements would be just the same. Moreover - time is ticking severely on our F18's which are way-way past service windows. As to the commenter above about F35's - it's very complicated, and our 'sticking to the f35' may have very well just been political. We never signed a deal, and never committed to a price - also - we still may buy them. Publicly pulling out of the deal means a number of local sub-contractors lose their contracts. Of course it's complicated though.

gaius 9y ago

It's funny, most people in the rest of the world don't even think Canada has a military. What do the Mounties need with F18s? I am sure the Eurofighter consortium would be happy to take an order for some Typhoons tho'...

kogepathic 9y ago
> I am sure the Eurofighter consortium would be happy to take an order for some Typhoons tho'... Sweden has a Gripen I'm sure they would love to sell. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_JAS_39_Gripen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_JAS_39_Gripen
rconti 9y ago
It seems like it would be an insanely huge task to start doing military contracts with a new supplier, get new parts, train servicemembers how to maintain the new planes, and deal with countless pieces of support equipment and infrastructure and software designed for one plane. Then again, I really have no idea -- perhaps there are so few commonalities between an F/A-18 and an F-35 that it's just as easy to switch to another vendor.
- gaius 9y ago
  There are barely any commonalities between F35 variants despite what was promised, it's another debacle of that programme.

alexasmyths 9y ago

I have first-hand experience with this and this is really a significant problem and it's not a joke. We are definitely not 'perfectly happy' - it 100% affects operational capabilities, including putting lives at risk - we operate without proper air support in some scenarios, finally the previous government faced the problem and bought some Chinooks (ironically from Boeing). Trudeau is different only in tone from previous governments with respect to foreign engagement. In pragmatic reality our military involvements would be just the same. Moreover - time is ticking severely on our F18's which are way-way past service windows. As to the commenter above about F35's - it's very complicated, and our 'sticking to the f35' may have very well just been political. We never signed a deal, and never committed to a price - also - we still may buy them. Publicly pulling out of the deal means a number of local sub-contractors lose their contracts. Of course it's complicated though.