Aus diesem Grund sollte Kanada auf den Kauf amerikanischer F-35 verzichten und sich stattdessen für den schwedischen Kampfjet Gripen entscheiden
https://www.thestar.com/business/opinion/choose-your-friends-wisely-there-are-13-000-good-reasons-why-canada-should-buy-swedens/article_de9fcb7d-3950-4569-8bbd-c78a5e9112a2.html
11 Kommentare
The main question here that needs to be answered isn’t so much “what jet is better” but rather “what is the military for”
I have no idea what choice is best for Canada and I certainly hope the experts in the room can make a determination based on needs and not on politics…its all I ask.
We really should just go with the gripen. It performs better in cold climates, we will have the ip, and we can build them here. A middle finger to america is just an added bonus.
If this writer seriously thinks this would create 13,000 jobs, I have a unicorn to sell them.
This all might be more believable if Saab hasn’t been saying the same crap to every other country in the world for the last 15 years.
Brazil was sold the “domestic manufacturing” sales pitch over a decade ago. 12 years later they haven’t finished a single aircraft, and the whole thing only employs a couple hundred people.
The trouble is we never see anything through to the end. We had the Avro Arrow which was decades ahead of its time and the Iroquois engine to power it also vastly ahead of its time. Then along comes party change in government and everything gets cancelled and disposed of and in this case it all went south to the U.S. If we do develop our own jets again will the political parties allow the nation to see it through to the end? I for one think not; as the parties no longer know how to work with one another in the best interests of the Canadian people.
I’m surprised we haven’t looked at the South Korean KAI KF-21 Boramae. It would really fit are needs. Dual engine almost like the F-22 just not as stealthy
I am constantly doing the „why not both?“ Gif on this one.
My drothers are:
50 F-35s
62 Gripens
7 Boeing AWACs
5 Saab Global eyes
And 2-4 smaller saad AWACs
That’s 2 F-35 squadrons we can roll if needed, Gripens can do a lot of the close soveirgn flights and checks at a fraction the cost.
AWACs give us extended radar if needed and ability to see and maneuver.
Keeps us good for the next 20-40 years until it’s all autonomous.
**People have to understand that the F-35 is NOT INVISIBLE to other warplanes anymore.**
America implements stealth mostly physically by using radar absorbing coatings (paints) and composite materials, eliminating straight edges in panels, right angles, gold coating on $600,000 canopy and by using funky panel angles to reflect radar energy away from the enemy radar.
Face with American „stealth“ tech, all other countries (France, UK, China, Russia, Sweden…) have switched to other mode of detection based on optronics (FSO).
>The FSO allows stealthy targets to be detected and tracked, placing the Rafale and its combat sphere at the centre of future engagements, while visually identifying targets at stand-off distances, as required by the rules of engagement.
>The Gripen’s ability to operate effectively against stealth threats relies on a combination of passive and active sensors and networked intelligence: Infra-Red Search and Track (IRST), Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) Radar, Electronic Warfare (EW) Suite and Sensor Fusion & Networked Capabilities.
Optronics refer to „*the study and application of electronic devices and systems that find, detect and control light“,* here we are talking about all the spectrum of light, from Infrared to ultraviolets, including X-ray…
When a plane flies, the **friction** between the surrounding air and the plane’s surfaces creates heat, making the plane warmer than the air around it, turning it into a flashlight in a dark room for an Infrared detector.
The F-35 also has an engine that belches out plumes of **hot gases**, basically looking like a bonfire to an IR detector.
The F-35 also uses active and passive infrared systems for targeting and situational awareness, those active infrared emissions are picked up by enemy warplanes, again making the F-35 visible.
**Why I wrote all of that…**
Because the main attractiveness of the F-35 is in its capability to invade strongly defended airspace, like what Israel does to Iran, like how Ukraine would like to do to Russia if Trump was to let it have F-35, like what China would like to do to Taiwan…
Now the question is „when does Canada need to invade strongly defended airspace? And the answer to that is „Never“.
When was the last time Canadian F-18 invaded defended airspace? the last time was 2011 during the Libya military intervention to unseat Gaddafi… **What happened?** Canada and other allies let American planes destroy every radar, fighter jet and anti-air systems in Libya and once everything was destroyed, Canada and other allied could fly unopposed over the country.
What about the Afghanistan campaign? Well the Talibans did not have serious detection capabilities, so it was a cake walk even for non-stealth fighters.
**Why buy an expensive plane, difficult and expensive to maintain plane, that spends more time in maintenance than in the air, whose only attractiveness is doing things Canada does not need when we have a cheaper option that’s just as good?**
Please just let the people who will use the equipment pick their equipment not randos with a political agenda. Our problem is we do infact not see anything through and the procurement of this aircraft is a prime example.
I hope ex-pat Canadians who moved to the U.S. for higher paying jobs will move back to help build this new Swedish fighter jet; obviously probably not as a designer, but as a constructor working at the electronics technician or aircraft mechanic level.
Saying the Gripen was „runner-up“ is like me saying I came in second in a race with Usain Bolt. It scored way behind the F-35 in every category and would relegate the Canadian military to perpetual second-class status internationally. Do we want to be like Sweden and the Czech Republic or like the UK and Australia?