Canadian Liberal Party announcement on CF-18 replacement. Hint: F-35 not useful

The Liberal Party of Canada has released a variety of platform statements in regard to how they want to take government in the future.

In regard to Defence, this PDF file spells out an interesting summary. Take the time to read all of it.

Also in that PDF you will see direct statements in regard to the CF-18 replacement.

That is, Canada (or few others) find the F-35 affordable. Note that recent USAF budgets show that the F-35 has a cost per flying hour, well over $50,000 USD. I never thought Canada could afford 65. Not mentioned is that early JSF briefings showed Canada going for 80. But with 65 (or less) this number of tactical aircraft will not meet Canada's contingency needs.

The Liberal Party looks at CF-35 CONOPS (concept of operations), and sees that stealth strike (as an aside the F-35 doesn't have much of that) doesn't fit into their needs.

More on F-35 CONOPS. USAF leaders recently stated that the reason for getting rid of the A-10 is that it is a single mission aircraft.

So is the F-35. It won't be able to do air supperiority. It won't be able to do Close Air Support (CAS). That leaves interdiction missions. Note the F-35 electro-optical targeting system (EOTS). It is basically SNIPER-pod capability (pretty good). However F-35 EOTS field of view, only makes it capable for interdiction missions. Canada and the USMC get better close air support capability with the field of view of the targeting pods on their F-18s when they are put on the centerline.

So, the F-35 is a single mission aircraft. And it is worse at interdiction that many other solutions including Tomahawk and JASSM-ER cruise missiles dropped from a variety of aircraft.

If Canada does not go with the CF-35, they will not be weak in the area of interdiction missions when putting cruise missiles on most other available fighter aircraft on the market.

No matter what politics one goes for in Canada, they could do well for themselves by having a "me-to" effort like the Liberal Party. It appears to have the goal of what can be paid for to meet Canada's defence needs. And what is bought, will be well thought out.

Keep an eye on Mark's blog as I suspect he will have something up on this topic soon.


JSF Alternate Realities: …and from whence they come


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