- cross-posted to:
- world@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- world@lemmy.world
cross-posted from: https://reddthat.com/post/54545288
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Why wouldn’t you cut America off? detox, cut ties. Prepare nukes etc…
Because they aren’t just going out and buying a new car.
A military changing aircraft means rewriting pilot and maintenance personnel training programs, then retraining everyone, changing logistics chains for a completely different set of spare parts, rewriting tactical plans to match the new aircraft’s capabilities & limitations, changing ordnance availability based on what the new platform can carry… changing the aircraft means thousands of follow-on decisions and costs for all of the support structure and military operations built around the aircraft.
Can Sweden supply the number of aircraft that Canada needs? How many, and over how many years? what about spare parts - can Canada manufacture some within its borders, or purchase them from third-party suppliers, or will it be completely dependent on Sweden to supply them? what guarantees can be given about access to those parts? How quickly can pilots be retrained? Can the same type of missiles be mounted on the Gripen, or will the Canadian military have to select different weapons systems, purchase them, and retrain personnel to use and handle them? are the communication, radar and electronic warfare capabilities on these aircraft comparable? can the Gripen perform all of the same mission types as the F-35, or will other aircraft have to provide capabilities and either support, participate in or take over certain mission types? will it fit in current Canadian hangars, or will new facilities have to be built? can it take off and land on the same airstrips as the F-35, or will some have to be modified, or will it simply not be deployable from all of the same locations?
Finally, is the time, effort, internal chaos, and financial cost of changing aircraft worth it? It will take more than 3 years to accomplish these changes. Is waiting for the US administration to change a lower risk/lower cost option?
They will be built in Canada. Canada already builds large numbers of aircraft for Sweden.
Don’t buy from the enemy and fund them.
This year, the next development phase (Block4) promised capabilities were trimmed down and new delays were announced. Meanwhile, the last refresh had so much troubles that Lockheed delivered non-combat capable jets for some time (are they meeting all their promises even now??).
So I don’t know if the Gripen is as capable as what the F35 is supposed to be for Canada’s needs, but at least it’s an existing product, tested in real combat, from a reliable maker.
Saab already offered to have them assembled in Canada, and that production site would also build Ukraine’s order.
The F35 is a work in progress and a lot of its awesomeness exists on Powerpoint only. And even if it gets there one day, no one can tell how long you’ll wait, how much it will cost, and not even if it will be relevant by the time, as its furtivity advantage, for example, could be nullified by new radars capabilities.
So on one hand, an expensive solution, that’s true, but you know what you get. On the other, a complete unknown on costs, delays and gap between promised and actual capabilities.
More food for thoughts: when Greece ordered some F35 in addition to its Rafale and F16 fleet, no one in the US admin thought a mixed fleet was too expensive for a country like Greece.
So I will let Canada’s deciders take their time on that one…
The real headline:
Trump proves again to Canadians that Americans are unreliable partners, in trade, like in defense, costing US arms makers hundreds of billions. Can American ever be trusted again? Can America ever recover?
Trump taught the world they can’t be trusted. Canada isn’t snubbing the F35. Americans just lost their fucking minds and no one wants to do business with them.
F35s are useless in patrolling the Arctic, Gripens much better. No way Canada should be buying these from the US which is actively trying to annex it.
I am not an expert, but I thought the problem with the F-35’s patrolling the Arctic was that they’re single engine. Is there something else I’m missing?
The smart move is to wait for annexation and then get them for free.
Canada should propose buying F35s exclusively with wealth taxes. We’d see how quickly the op-eds would change their tunes.
Y’know what would really stick it to them 'Mericans? Expansion of social welfare programs that alleviate community dependency on US corporations. Imagine how mad they’d be when housing and post-secondary education is fully socialized and funded. That’d be some epic trolling, like, if we ensured that Canadians have the funds and material security to support internal investment and economic growth without forced use of American-owned services or products. Ooooh they’d be like: >:(
Jets though, sure, military sovereignty is super important when they don’t even have to invade your space to secure their interests.
What I don’t understand is: why are we changing one foreign manufacturer to be **** “dependent on another?” They could also pull out of Canada anytime they get a snit on, like the Americans. What is the advantage, other than getting even with trump? That’s my question???
