Same here. I am not some Code Pink anti-american pacifist or worse. But do we really need to spend more than the next 25 countries combined on defense, particularly since most of them are considered our allies? And what real use is an ultra expensive next gen fighter plane anyway? It's too expensive to risk against an advanced air defense system. What we have now is already superior to anything else out there. And aren't 25 high performance drones superior to one manned fighter for the same or lower cost?
Does Canada even have the capability to build a fighter aircraft? I think Mexico uses some old F-5's in case they need to fight Belize or something.
The "point" of the F-35 is to replace the F-14 (retired from service), F-15 & F-16 (40 year-old designs) and F-18 & AV-8B II (30 year-old designs). Whether or not the F-35 will accomplish that mission remains to be seen.
Israelis won the most lopsided military action in history flying over the Bakka Valley. They took American fighter planes and added all kinds of stuff, things like rear view mirrors from auto parts stores, just stuff they thought of. People that worry that the US spends too much on defense don't get that our biggest export is military weaponry. The R$D is on the taxpayers but the money comes back into the country.
Yes. They've been reading my threads about the coming Global Cooling. The Canadians are running scared!
I thought the F-18 replaced the F-14 and has been significantly upgraded since it was initially developed, and I believe the F-22 was designed to be the successor to the F-15 and F-16. Anyway, I still don't see the point of building advanced hardware and sharing it with others, it defeats the purpose imo.
The F-18, despite its upgrades, is still a 30+ year-old design. The F-22 program has been stopped. The purpose of sharing the F-35 with others is to get them to share the cost.
Bombardier with some other partners would love to get into the figher plane business in their home country of Canada funded by the government. Of course, it would require Bombardier to partner with some other companies. Naturally they would need to have the government rescind the F-35 purchase to make their vision a reality - which is why they take every opportunity in the media & government to knock the F-35. This is all about a domestic competitor with no product trying to force the government not to buy an existing foreign product.