And so it begins. The Conservative
Government has announced the awarding of a maintenance contract to keep the CF-18 Hornets in the air until the new CF-35 Lightning II enters service. This of course has brought out the naysayers all over again who are continuing to demand that the new fighter jet should have been sent to tender or should be cancelled outright because we can’t afford it.
About four decades ago they would have been right. Back then, a few North American companies would have paraded out a new design, or perhaps even an old one that had been modernized. A few European manufacturers would have tossed their offerings into the hat and next thing you knew, there would have been a tidy little line up of choices to choose from.
Today it’s very different. Not only will no one manufacturer design and build a prototype which might not sell – not at the price these babies cost to R&D - but because of those costs, multiple manufacturers usually form a consortium to design and build a single aircraft which after intense study is determined to be what is needed.
Now, when a country’s government sees the need for a new aircraft in their future, they will usually do the same sort of thing and partner with other countries for the same reason – to save money with larger production numbers. This brings us to Canada acquiring the CF-35 Lightning II.
We did partner with a group of other countries – the manufacturers consorted and lo and behold, the F/CF-35 Lightning II was born. Is it the best in the world? Nope, the F-22 holds that title, but we really can’t afford those. Is it good enough? You’re darn right it is!
Do we really need it? Well, that depends. Do you think when the water, oil and other natural resources Canada is sitting on top of start to run out in the rest of the world, no one will try to come and take them from us? When you pull off those rose coloured glasses and think for a minute, it’ll hit you. You didn’t think it was about Russian bombers testing our northern defences that the defence minister was talking about, did you? It’s about what is UNDER the north that we need to protect or we’ll be watching Russian oil rigs popping up all over the place up there.
The CF-35 is the right aircraft at the right time for Canada and thank goodness that the Liberals figured that out a long time ago! Yeah, that’s right – that Canadian flag on the side of the Lightning II’s nose was not put there by the Conservatives looking for a photo op as so many would have you believe. But hey, the Conservatives are into it for our troops so if Iggy insists on blaming them for the decision to acquire this aircraft, no problem!
How sad for Iggy though – his party actually made a good decision – and he’s too pig headed to realize it, let alone take credit. Then again, those guys never were known as the people who worry about what our troops go to war in. They are good an cancelling things though – no matter the cost in dollars or soldiers lives put at risk.
The REAL winners here are the men and women who might some day have to defend our natural resources and the rights of Canadians to spout off about things without checking their facts, and they will be doing so in one of the world’s finest aircraft.
Oh, one last thing – the other choices if you REALLY want to insist on having one are two; a Russian aircraft – yeah, those guys who will be building oil rigs all over northern Canada…or…a neat European design that…well…sadly doesn’t do anything well. Check the flags on the F/CF-35 in the picture and you’ll note that most of those countries don’t think it does anything well either.
We all wish we could stop spending another dime on defence and put all that money into education and health care but the reality is that our right to have an education or expect health care is defended every day by the men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces.
You want to debate the military’s budget? Go debate it with them, but only if you can look them straight in the eye while doing so.
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