CF-18 replacement program faces more uncertainty

$3.1B is a lot of money for the small Canadian military.

In an effort to close Canada's budget deficit, that is the amount the government is holding back from new defense purchases, at least out to 2017-18, reports Defense News.

Analysis? This will have a severe effect on the troubled idea of replacing CF-18 fighter aircraft.

The saga of Canada wanting to replace its CF-18s with F-35 Joint Strike Fighters is a mess. None of the overly optimistic (or is it fraud?) promises made by the F-35 JSF team to the Canadian government at the beginning of the last decade have come true. In fact the F-35 JSF program is in serious development trouble in all areas: schedule, cost and capability.

As an aside, due to various bungled leadership decisions, Australia will keep its old F-18 aircraft flying out to at least 2022. Years ago, the original plan was to replace them starting in 2010...with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

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-Time's Battleland - 5 Part series on F-35 procurement - 2013 
-Summary of Air Power Australia F-35 points
-Aviation Week (ARES blog) F-35 posts (2007 to present)
-U.S. Government Accounting Office (GAO) F-35 reports
-F-35 JSF: Cold War Anachronism Without a Mission
-History of F-35 Production Cuts
-Looking at the three Japan contenders (maneuverability)
-How the Canadian DND misleads the public about the F-35
-Value of STOVL F-35B over-hyped
-Cuckoo in the nest--U.S. DOD DOT&E F-35 report is out
-6 Feb 2012 Letter from SASC to DOD boss Panetta questioning the decision to lift probation on the F-35B STOVL.
-USAFs F-35 procurement plan is not believable
-December 2011 Australia/Canada Brief
-F-35 Key Performance Perimeters (KPP) and Feb 2012 CRS report
-F-35 DOD Select Acquisition Report (SAR) FY2012
-Release of F-35 2012 test report card shows continued waste on a dud program
-Australian Defence answers serious F-35 project concerns with "so what?"
-Land of the Lost (production cut history update March 2013)
-Outgoing LM F-35 program boss admits to flawed weight assumptions (March 2013)
-A look at the F-35 program's astro-turfing
-F-35 and F-16 cost per flying hour
-Is this aircraft worth over $51B of USMC tac-air funding?
-Combat radius and altitude, A model
-F-35A, noise abatement and airfields and the USAF
-Deceptive marketing practice: F-35 blocks
-The concurrency fraud
-The dung beetle's "it's known" lie


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