AVCANADA

Keep in mind that if the Harper gov't simultaneously found a cure for cancer and heart disease, the CBC's headline would read:
"Harper Government Overpopulates Planet"

Keep in mind that if the Harper gov't simultaneously found a cure for cancer and heart disease, the CBC's headline would read:

"Harper Government Overpopulates Planet"

The real story is that the CBC hates the Conservatives, who are trying to reduce government spending, which means that some people at the CBC could lose their jobs as a result. Or not get a raise.

That's a story the CBC will never run.

Back to flogging the staggering horse, please....

It was not the conservatives who got us involved with this in the first place. We lose money the Liberals invested, and we purchase some rhinos....the likely event.

I confidently predict that there will never be an F 35 operated by the RCAF

I was going to say ... the Liberals paid to get us in as partners so Canadian companies could participate, and this is already happening, regardless of whether we purchase the aircraft.

Under the liberal government, Canada invested a total of 160M$ in the JSF program (10M$ in 1997, for the Concept Demonstration phase, and 150M$ over 10 years in 2002 for the System Development and Demonstration phase).

This investment brought more than double than that in contract for the canadian aerospace industry. If we don't purchase the F35, that money will not be lost. It already paid off. The liberals don't always get it wrong, I guess.

It's the conservative that got us really involved in the JSF program by signing in 2006 the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the Production, Sustainment and Follow-on Development phase, investing 551M$ over the 2007-2051 period. If we don't buy the F35, some of that money will be lost, and if we decide to get out of the MoU in order to be able to do a real competition, we'll end up paying much more for the F35 if it's the winning airplane, and the industrial benefits will be greatly reduced.

They would not invest in an airplane they may not acquire.

Thanks kamikaze. Now it's you who beat me to the reply

126.7_STFU, the information is widely available on the internet, I'm not going to bother linking the sources for now, since you did not seem to bother reasearching the different phase of the JSF program that I introduced to you.




You are trolling right?

No need for further horse flogging. The F 35 option is dead, the government is just waiting for for the least embarrassing moment to make it official. I confidently predict that there will never be an F 35 operated by the RCAF

F-35s don't meet military's requirements, documents show
Timing of statement of operational requirements for plane also questioned
CBC News Posted: Mar 26, 2012 6:32 PM ET Last Updated: Mar 26, 2012 7:06 PM ET Read 308 comments308



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The federal government didn't follow normal procurement procedures to buy the F-35 fighter jets and the plane fails to meet at least one critical feature the government stipulated must be met, documents viewed by CBC News suggest.

CBC Power & Politics host Evan Solomon reported Monday that the exclusive new evidence reveals for the first time the Canadian military's requirements for the aircraft that are to replace the aging fleet of CF-18s.

Solomon said the statement of operational requirements, a document that has never been made public, outlines what the plane must be able to do in order to be purchased.

It describes specific mandatory characteristics without which the overall operational capability would be "unacceptably diminished."

One of the 28 mandatory requirements listed is for the plane's sensor requirements. The document says the plane must be capable of providing the pilot with 360-degree, out-of-cockpit visual situational awareness in a no-light environment.

"According to the U.S. Department of Defence there are so many problems with this feature that they're actually designing a backup. In other words, the plane can't do it," Solomon reported.

Questions are also being raised about the brief amount of time between when the statement of operational requirements was written and when Defence Minister Peter MacKay announced the purchase.

The document, referred to as "Version 1.0" of the statement of operational requirements for the "next generation fighter capability" was issued on June 1, 2010.

It would normally take one to two years after a statement of operational requirements is issued to hold a competition to find a product and sign a contract with a supplier.

But MacKay appeared on Power & Politics less than two months later, on July 16, 2010, to announce that the government was moving forward with the F-35 purchase.

An F-35 flies over the Grand Canyon during a test flight, March 19, 2009. (Darin Russell/Lockheed Martin)
The government plans to buy 65 planes from Lockheed Martin as part of a joint purchasing program with other countries.

Alan Williams, a former assistant deputy minister at the Department of National Defence and the official who signed the memorandum of understanding in 2002 that brought Canada into the Joint Strike Fighter program, said normal procedures weren't followed.

"Not only is it not normal, but it's a complete hijacking and rigging of the process," he said in an interview on Monday's Power & Politics.

"In 2006, the military and civilians recommended the F-35 to the minister and four years later, they developed their requirements, obviously rigged or wired to ensure that the only jet to meet the requirements would be the one that they recommended four years earlier," Williams said.

But Christopher Alexander, MacKay's parliamentary secretary, told Solomon that the F-35 does meet the requirements, and "that's why it's been selected."

He said it's a developmental project and that "it's not unusual for items that are being procured for the Canadian Forces not to meet every one of the developmental requirements, it's a question of relative choices."

"You take the one that meets most of them," Alexander said.

The F-35 procurement, the costliest military purchase in Canadian history, is the source of ongoing controversy and is the subject of an auditor general's report that is being released next week. The government estimates the entire purchase and associated costs will be between $14 billion and $16 billion.

One of the 28 mandatory requirements listed is for the plane's sensor requirements. The document says the plane must be capable of providing the pilot with 360-degree, out-of-cockpit visual situational awareness in a no-light environment.

"According to the U.S. Department of Defence there are so many problems with this feature that they're actually designing a backup. In other words, the plane can't do it," Solomon reported.

"In 2006, the military and civilians recommended the F-35 to the minister and four years later, they developed their requirements, obviously rigged or wired to ensure that the only jet to meet the requirements would be the one that they recommended four years earlier," Williams said.

Hey lets play the what if game. What if the NDP wins the next Federal election, will they cancel the F35 ? (if not yet cancelled)

The CBC sux equally for all, get over it.

On topic - the F35 is going to be cancelled