Still Going to Buy the F-35, Really?

[Dougie93]

Ironically, even though CF-18 is based on a Navy jet, it doesn't actually interoperate much with the RCN. 

They don't train for it much and the tech on the ships is better than the tech on the Hornet, so Hornet doesn't bring much to the fight for the RCN.

F-35 is designed to be joint from the get go, so comes ready to see and strike at sea as necessary for the RCN.

So for example if the RCN is enforcing a UNSC resolution off some hostile coast, F-35 can fly from nearby Forward Operating Base to provide cover.

And that's exponential force multiplier cover, can't be seen, but seeing all, can engage threats well over the horizon, can engage massed and swarming threats close in.

The RCN can request targets to be struck, or the F-35 can spot targets for them.

Minimal extra training requirements, this is what F-35 does all the time, over land, over sea, makes no difference.

[bush_cheney2004]

Even if Canada got off its ass and pulled the trigger today for F-35A, Gripen E, or F-18E/F/G, they still wouldn't enter service until late in the next decade.

Hence this fun headline:

F-35 or Not: This Country Needs 88 New Fighter Jets Before Its Air Force Falls Apart

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/f-35-or-not-country-needs-88-new-fighter-jets-its-air-force-falls-apart-52872

[Dougie93]

In terms of patrolling the arctic, borders, or offshore,  CF-18 pilots can't see much from the cockpit, they aren't actually flying Armed ISR.

With the sensors on F-35, the plane is looking out many miles in all directions, detecting and tracking things for them.

They can just let the autopilot fly the jet, while they zoom in and inspect things prioritized for them by the Sensor Fusion.

It would immediately be the RCAF's most capable ISR platform.

Moreover, the Automated Logistics Information System (ALIS) records everything, so after they get back to base, they can go back and look at things they might have missed in real time,

Can also document any violations for the purposes of law enforcement by these means.

Edited September 1, 2019 by Dougie93

[bush_cheney2004]

Well, it turns out that Canada doesn't "patrol the Arctic" nearly as much as it implies, despite being necessary.   Just costs too much and the area is too vast for available resources.    Canada's air force is just too small for such a large area....NORAD adds the Americans to the mix...much better shared coverage.

[bush_cheney2004]

This is how bad things have gotten....Canada now has Estimated Life Expectancies and extension programs to limp in year 2030 as best it can.   May as well bring back the F-5 Freedom Fighters.

 

Quote

To summarize, flying the CF-18 past the current ELE of 2020 will incur additional costs to the Department. All expenditures associated with extending the CF-18 operating life represent investments in an ever-declining capability in an aging fleet. Nevertheless, an ELE extension to 2025 is currently assessed as a low risk option in terms of cost, schedule and technical factors. An ELE extension to 2030 is assessed as a high risk option in terms of cost, schedule and technical factors.

http://www.forces.gc.ca/assets/FORCES_Internet/docs/en/about-reports-pubs/06 11 Task 4 (En) Report Final.pdf

 

[eyeball]

4 minutes ago, bush_cheney2004 said:

Just costs too much and the area is too vast for available resources.

Anyone planning to invade the Arctic has probably concluded much the same thing.

[Dougie93]

Agreed, again, mostly Canada uses the CF-18's for offense not defense.

They've never actually had to dogfight once in their entire service life.

Never the less, in the unlikely event, contrary to popular sentiment, the F-35 is second only to the F-22 in a dogfight,

F-35 combines the qualities of both the F-16 and F/A-18 into one.

It can pull high g fast turns like an F-16, it exceeds the low speed high alpha perfomance of the F/A-18 and is closer to the Raptor in that envelope.

Plus don't forget the All Seeing Eye is working in the dogfight too, keeps track of the opponent and allows the F-35 to shoot first by Information dominance.

 

[Dougie93]

The F-35 also comes ready for both Electronic Warfare and Cyber Warfare,

It can both Jam and Hack, while defending itself from Jamming and Hacking.

It also doesn't need AWACS,  it can be its own AWACS, Canada doesn't have AWACS, F-35 solves that problem for the RCAF too,

AEW, EW, CW, three capabilities which Canada lacks, comes right in the box with the jet.

It also doesn't need Wild Weasel for SEAD, another problem solved for the RCAF,

F-35 would be a game changer for them, quantum leap all at once,

F-35 eliminates the need for dozens of other supporting aircraft, F-35 does it all in one.

Edited September 1, 2019 by Dougie93

[bush_cheney2004]

The more capabilities that the F-35 has...the more the haters will pile on and dismiss the need for any such things in "bomb trucks".

And then there is Justin Trudeau, who stupidly declared that Canada would never buy F-35.

 

 

[Dougie93]

They were in third place behind the NDP,  they were saying anything no matter how foolish, to take the NDP down.

[bush_cheney2004]

Trudeau didn't even make any sense, as Canadians were already sharing in JSF program jobs as paying Tier 3 partners (Chretien).

So now the F-35 will be in the "competition", blowing away Gripen or Super Hornet, and he will have to eat crow.

Hell, even if they pick Super Hornet, they will have to eat even more crow because Trudeau is also at war with Boeing.

Maybe Trudeau can go for the hat trick and piss off Saab too before this is all over.

[Dougie93]

11 minutes ago, bush_cheney2004 said:

Trudeau didn't even make any sense, as Canadians were already sharing in JSF program jobs as paying Tier 3 partners (Chretien).

So now the F-35 will be in the "competition", blowing away Gripen or Super Hornet, and he will have to eat crow.

Hell, even if they pick Super Hornet, they will have to eat even more crow because Trudeau is also at war with Boeing.

Maybe Trudeau can go for the hat trick and piss off Saab too before this is all over.

As an LMT shareholder, I'm not pissed, I know Canada is a clown show.

A three way competition between the Liberals,  NDP and Greens, as to who can be the biggest bunch of hysterical America bashing left wing kooks.

And then the Cuckservatives, who are too corrupt and incompetent to ever undo any of the damage inflicted, plus secretly the Cucks resent America too.

Canada is like taking a flyer, Lockheed Martin can afford to enter these silly charade competitions over and over. We've got the market cornered.

If Boeing gets it, oh well, Boeing is not really our competition, the line in St. Louis will close soon, Super Hornet doesn't have many orders left, F-35 is just getting started,

Edited September 1, 2019 by Dougie93

[bush_cheney2004]

The Canadian bo-bos pulling for Super Hornet just to spite LockMart's F-35 are counting on FMS support and spares for a long time because the Americans will still have F-18 E/F/G inventory, but that won't last for 40 years !

Gripen E would have even a smaller installed base.

As for Typhoon, Airbus has already walked away from this clown show.

May as well invite the Chinese and Russians to participate too.

[Dougie93]

5 minutes ago, bush_cheney2004 said:

May as well invite the Chinese and Russians to participate too.

Super Flanker is a great 4th Gen platform, but all those fancy airshow acrobatics are useless in combat these days.

Speed is not life anymore, Information is life now.  

Deny information to the adversary while gathering it on him; Stealth & Sensor Fusion for first look, first shoot, first kill.

[bush_cheney2004]

My only skin in this game is for Northrup-Grumman, which provides me a fine pension after several mergers and acquisitions over the years.

Northrup-Grumman provides the EA-18G Growler modification, which replaced the EA-6 Prowler electronic warfare platform.

 

[Dougie93]

Northrup Grumman is the real competition.

B-21 Raider.

Stealth UCAVs

 Supercounterforce option.

But that's all good, Eagle with thunderbolts in talons grasped, Trident II to depressed trajectory from point blank, Lockheed Martin UGM-133 in the breach

F-35 has its role, it's a system of systems, Northrup Grumman is not an enemy, it's a healthy competition between kin.

Edited September 1, 2019 by Dougie93

[bush_cheney2004]

Hey, it's all good. 

Even Canada will have to get off the pot and buy something eventually.

Then the real fun begins as all the peaceniks and weenies cry their hearts out about wasting money on the war machine instead of opening more safe injection sites in Vancouver.

...and maybe Justin Trudeau will take a selfie next to a new strike fighter.

[Dougie93]

1 minute ago, bush_cheney2004 said:

Hey, it's all good. 

Even Canada will have to get off the pot and buy something eventually.

Then the real fun begins as all the peaceniks and weenies cry their hearts out about wasting money on the war machine instead of opening more safe injection sites in Vancouver.

...and maybe Justin Trudeau will take a selfie next to a new strike fighter.

So true, Canada just bumbles along, no real direction to anything it does, the programs boom and bust, once in awhile something is added to the Showroom of the Boutique Military boondoggle.

It's all about domestic pandering to Anti-American left wing kooks, and that is what Disarmament by Stealth is all about.

[Dougie93]

Speaking of counterforce, in the event of the Balloon going up on the trace, which is now at the Sulwalki Gap in the Baltic, where Canada has a Tripwire force deployed at Camp Adazi;

F-35 is the conventional deterrent, but it is also theater thermonuclear war ready, can carry 2 x B61-12 tactical thermonuclear bomb.

So is actually the only way Canada can participate in NATO strategic deterrence, though no doubt squeamish Free Rider Canadians recoil at the thought.

[bush_cheney2004]

There have been some bright moments, as when PM Harper stopped the madness and procured reliable heavy airlift for Canada.   He didn't care how much the usual weenies bitched or the red tape...just did it...and Canadian Forces were/are better for that.

 

 

Edited September 1, 2019 by bush_cheney2004

[Dougie93]

The way the tactics have been developed for F-35 at Red Flag, the USAF actually uses it as a quarterback first and foremost.

It's not even about how many bombs the F-35 itself carries, what it does is go into the high threat areas and finds things, then calls audibles for the rest of the package,

So F-35 is out in front calling the plays, other assets, like B-1B for example, can launch the bombs onto the targets spotted and then handed off from the F-35's

[Dougie93]

2 minutes ago, bush_cheney2004 said:

There have been some bright moments, as when PM Harper stopped the madness and procured reliable heavy airlift for Canada.   He didn't care how much the usual weenies bitched or the red tape...just did it...and Canadian Forces were/are better for that.

Advanced Contract Award Notices are short term gain for long term pain, because the media starts squawking about no competition, so the pols just end up holding more fake competitions in the end to appease the CBC,

 

[bush_cheney2004]

It's not hard to figure out....American military doctrine means air superiority and total spectrum dominance...then the bombs and missile start lighting things up.   First on the list is defense suppression....boom goes the HE warheads.   The enemy knows this, but is powerless to stop it.

F-35 means even longer standoff range and weapons deployment....total sensor and processing integration....and stealthier than a size 32AA bra.

[bush_cheney2004]

8 minutes ago, Dougie93 said:

Advanced Contract Award Notices are short term gain for long term pain, because the media starts squawking about no competition, so the pols just end up holding more fake competitions in the end to appease the CBC,

 

 

That's why I have more respect for Harper....the body count was going up and the Iltis jeeps were not going to cut it.   No more screwing around with rented Antonovs and to hell with the bitching Liberals and NDP...it was the Liberals/Chretien that went to war with half ass kit.

Somebody is going to have to step forward again and show some leadership...competition or not...but it won't be Justin Trudeau.

Edited September 1, 2019 by bush_cheney2004

[Dougie93]

4 minutes ago, bush_cheney2004 said:

It's not hard to figure out....American military doctrine means air superiority and total spectrum dominance...then the bombs and missile start lighting things up.   First on the list is defense suppression....boom goes the HE warheads.   The enemy knows this, but is powerless to stop it.

F-35 means even longer standoff range and weapons deployment....total sensor and processing integration....and stealthier than a size 32AA bra.

F-35 delivers American level spectrum dominance to allies, Super Hornet requires a whole package of support assets which those allies can't afford

F-35 delivers theater strategic power,  it prevents wars from even starting, just by its presence alone, it's a force multiplier beyond anything allies have had access to before.