I’m seeing a lot of CPC associated people who are accusing CFIA and RCMP of gross corruption and massive over reach in culling the ostriches out in BC. Despite the farmers having their claims herd repeatedly in the courts and then being rejected.
Nova Scotia MP Chris d’Entremont says the barging into his office and yelling from Conservative Party leadership “sealed the deal” on his choice to cross the floor of the House of Commons to the Liberals this week.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/yelling-conservative-leadership-dentremont-9.6972680
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Thankfully the budget passed 170-168 and the government didn’t fall. The NDP were smart enough not to force an election.
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This possible fighter jet deal with Sweden apparently has a lot of interesting implications.
Apparently, unlike a deal with the US, Canada would get full technology transfer and would be free to modify the plane as we wish. I’m hearing it also disrupts the global arms trade status quo a bunch. Right now, I’m leaning towards hoping we switch from the F-35 to the Gripen.
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The CTV article doesn’t mention that the operating cost of the Gripen is much, much lower than that of Fat Amy, and is designed with the expectation of being used in an environment against a much greater foe (e.g. Russia getting nasty versus Sweden, or perhaps the US getting nasty versus Canada).
The downside is that it’s a fourth gen fighter, and isn’t really a match for the fifth gen technology that is the backbone of US and Chinese (and, theoretically, Russian) air combat systems…or the sixth gen tech that is under development in the US in China.
Does Carney have the guts to cancel the remaining F-35 purchases from the US? We are getting nowhere with US trade talks so I can’t see much downside in partnering with Sweden instead. Canada was a leader in aerospace in the 1950s so this may be a way to re-establish that industry.
I expect most people here are unaware, whereas most Canadians are pretty familiar with the Avro Arrow mythology. It’s like a part of our culture, ‘we were great once’ lol.
There’s a statue in a small town up north of the plane: https://www.zurakowskipark.ca/ . It’s located in Barry’s Bay, which is where Fallout is from if anyone still remembers that guy. Whatever happened to him I wonder.
F35 wouldn’t be useful for Canada against the US as the US has remote disable abilities by controlling all the software. The US is positioning themselves now as the greatest threat to Canada.
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Bombardier is still in that industry.
Canada will never be a leader given the investment dollars needed, but the Swedes are offering a lot more than the US.
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From what I’m understanding, in a war against the US or China, we’d likely have to abandon military bases and go to operating from widely distributed, remote airstrips/highways like the Ukraine. That sort of environment doesn’t seem to be conducive to keeping an F-35 operational whereas the Gripen could be maintained in that scenario.
I’d also wonder how long it is before we could just use drones to take on the F-35.
A side note is that I was seeing the Gripen being called a generation 4.5 fighter. I’m not sure what the difference is.
Essentially, the difference between Gen 4 and Gen 4.5 is the avionics. For example, Gen 4.5 supports data links among aircraft and ground resources to facilitate targeting, which means (among other things) that rather than pilots verbally discussing who’s going to shoot what, the computers on the aircraft and weapons handle the negotiations.
I notice also that part of the potential deal with Saab is that Canada would get to join in their development of the Gen 5 replacement for the Gripen.
That really sounds like a win-win arrangement for Canada.
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I expect we will see major drone production in Canada in the very near future.
The country is Ukraine, not the Ukraine. The Ukraine was a part of the Soviet Union and controlled from Moscow, Ukraine is independent, so the distinction is what they are fighting a war over.
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Interesting.
only two countries, The Bahamas and The Gambia, should officially be referred to with the article.
Great. I can now say that I have spent time in the only two countries in the world prefaced by “The”.
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The technology transfer by Saab to Canada is huge for the future of any industry here. The US F-35 deal would not include any meaningful technology transfer.
I think that defense manufacturing and R&D makes sense for Canada. There are a lot of long-term economic advantages.
But I do see a lot of economic and social problems if you have to materially dismantle your automobile manufacturing sector (as you will get hit with de-industrualisation in several regions) given its not possible to compete with China and the US is behaving irrationally with tariffs.
