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lenaitch said:
And I doubt we can spare a dozen or so to carve out for an air demonstration sqn.
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Forget the airplanes. We're dangerously short of Hornet pilots and several are currently in the process of moving to Luke AFB to start conversion training to the Panther. Where would you get a dozen Hornet pilots?

Guess we can just leave parts of the country or our NATO allies undefended to put on a show .....
 
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Admiral Beez said:
Nicely done.

www.theglobeandmail.com

Ottawa picks Sweden’s Saab early-warning aircraft tech over U.S. contenders

Prime Minister makes good on promise to reduce spending on American military gear
www.theglobeandmail.com www.theglobeandmail.com
Paywall free: https://archive.is/7xEb2

Now, let’s see what happens with the CF-18 replacement program. If we're buying SAAB's awacs plane we might as well get some of their Gripens.
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Nah....

The "review" will go on indefinitely till trade disputes with the US are settled.

The Globaleye is a safe decision to throw Saab a bone and send a warning shot to the US at the same time. Was definitely the third choice after the other two. But there's some value in building commonality with NATO. Albeit while losing commonality with our Five Eyes partners (it's also UK and AUS that fly the Wedgetail).
 
hw621 said:
Seems like people who would fly the Gripens are not very happy with them.
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So pilots who've never flown the Gripen are not happy with the aircraft? I'm more interested in the views of NATO pilots who have flown it.

But regardless, if the aim is to avoid sending the majority of our defence dollars to the US, what other non-US options do we have? I admit I like the look of the KAI KF-21, and would be interested to see it bundled with the KSS-III submarine program, but that's outside my pay grade, as they say.
 
Admiral Beez said:
You think US-Canada relations will return to Obama-like calm and friendly post-Jan 2029? I'm not so convinced, and expect Vance or Rubio will become POTUS and keep the Maga party on.
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I never said we go back to status quo ante. The fighter review is basically about keeping the pressure on during the USMCA talks. It would be a massive break in the relationship to dump the F-35 and go to the Gripen. Could well be the end of NORAD. That is highly unlikely to happen. Maybe we scale back the order and buy some Gripens.

Hence the GlobalEye order. It's a way to send a message without a full break.

Admiral Beez said:
So pilots who've never flown the Gripen are not happy with the aircraft? I'm more interested in the views of NATO pilots who have flown it.
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Not a single Hornet driver I know wants the Gripen. Mostly because when your behind is on the line you tend to have a clarity beyond politics. The Gripen is a lightweight F-16. And it performs just like that in exercises. Don't need to fly it to know how it does. Most notably for all of Saab's marketing, notice how they never talk about how it does against fully 5th gen aircraft? There's a reason for that. If we buy it, the decision will not be based on performance. It would entirely be about political signalling. At least the Globaleye is a minor loss in capability against the Wedgetail and Phoenix. The Gripen would be a massive hit going forward. Including with NATO integration given that more of NATO and Five Eyes are flying F-35s than Gripens. Not even all the Scandinavians are flying Gripens.
 
kEiThZ said:
Not a single Hornet driver I know wants the Gripen. Mostly because when your behind is on the line you tend to have a clarity beyond politics. The Gripen is a lightweight F-16. And it performs just like that in exercises. Don't need to fly it to know how it does. Most notably for all of Saab's marketing, notice how they never talk about how it does against fully 5th gen aircraft? There's a reason for that. If we buy it, the decision will not be based on performance.
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Reminds me of the reasoning behind the CF-5 Freedom Fighter when we should have gone upmarket.
 
kEiThZ said:
Nah....

The "review" will go on indefinitely till trade disputes with the US are settled.

The Globaleye is a safe decision to throw Saab a bone and send a warning shot to the US at the same time. Was definitely the third choice after the other two. But there's some value in building commonality with NATO. Albeit while losing commonality with our Five Eyes partners (it's also UK and AUS that fly the Wedgetail).
Click to expand...
I suspect once the Globaleye deal firms up, that will give political space for the government to go ahead with the larger F-35 order.

I'm not familiar with technical comparisons between the options, but I understand one of the proposed modifications for the Globaleye is the addition of air-to-air refueling.
 
TKMS's offer of economic benefits tied to the submarine bid has been leaked:

1779939531068.png

1779939569406.png

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/subs-germany-canada-economy-jobs-9.7213216
 
lenaitch said:
TKMS is offering to match Korea's first delivery timeline by 'stealing' hulls committed to both Norway and Germany. It sounds like a desperation move.
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One sub is not particularly useful if we have to wait another decade for the second.
 
lenaitch said:
I suspect once the Globaleye deal firms up, that will give political space for the government to go ahead with the larger F-35 order.

I'm not familiar with technical comparisons between the options, but I understand one of the proposed modifications for the Globaleye is the addition of air-to-air refueling.
Click to expand...

Institutionally, nothing has changed for the F-35. Pilots and techs are moving to start conversion training. The RCAF Commander attended the bulkhead signing ceremony in February for the first Canadian F-35 entering the production line. We're getting some F-35s. The exact number is, of course, negotiation fodder.

It's nice that AAR is being addressed for the Globaleye. There are still other substantial holes, mostly notably the lack of the MADL, which is the datalink used on the F-35 and the River Class Destroyers. They can use Link 16. But it's much less bandwidth and less secure. The bandwidth difference is massive. Link 16 measures in kilobits/sec. MADL runs on Megabits/sec.
 
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