2w ago

What Would It Take for Canada to Build Its Own Fighter Jets Again?

thewalrus.ca

What Would It Take for Canada to Build Its Own Fighter Jets Again? | The Walrus

16 comments

The future is in drones. If Canada should sink funding into anything, it should be that.
- Until someone comes up with a very compelling anti-drone countermeasure, drones are basically the ideal weapon for a battlefield. Cheap, mobile, can loiter, good recon, etc.
- I've wondered about just SAMs and MANPADs as an alternative to any new fighter jet. We can't really trust the F-35 and the alternatives (the Gripen E) might not be survivable, depending on a bunch of data I don't have.
  Sure, they can't be used offensively, but that's not the main thing I worry about in the near future.
Drones are the future, fuck building fighters or bombers.
- Drones can't defend the Arctic. In fact they'd be fairly useless to most of Canada that doesn't sit within the 49th-50th parallel.
  
  You know you can launch satilites that cover the arctic right? Or you making some claim about the cold and the batteries.
- Sort of? Existing software isn't smart enough to fight a battle on it's own, and electronic warfare is a real thing that makes communications hard. In a full-blown war situation there's appeal in having a human being in a cockpit close to possible targets.
  The things we worry about in Canada are more specific, though. For example, we probably don't need long-range bombers of our own.
The real concern is not “which aircraft to buy” — its “in 20 years will Canada be able to even arm itself in a world of disrupted supply chains?”
Agreed that drones are tactically important, but tanks and fighters ships are strategically important, and will never go out of style.
- I have seen plenty of tanks and ships crippled or destroyed by drones...
It would take billions of tax payer dollars and decades
- No more than what we're spending on the F35. We could design 10 new aircraft for that price
- The money is there. The Weston family and other billionaires are all holding it.
Deep pockets and a spine
- The cost isn't actually much higher for the Gripen proposal this is about, although I'm not sure if that leaves things like the actual factories out.

16 comments