> Only three of seven F-18 fighter jets purchased from Australia by the Canadian government have been integrated into the air force so far, and the Department of National Defence says key upgrades to as much as one-third of Canada's fighter force will take up to five years, according to documents recently tabled in the House of Commons.
> The slow introduction of the used warplanes — meant to bolster Canada's existing CF-18s squadrons — and the long timeline for radar refurbishment have the opposition Conservatives questioning the value of the interim fleet.
> When it first announced the plan three years ago, the government said it expected to keep most of the existing CF-18 fleet flying until 2032.
Is the article correct? Anyway I'm not laughing because here in Switzerland we have as well to replace our relatively old F-18 which might generate a huge debate with the potential result of nothing happening (F-35 is as well one of the candidates, but I've personally always been against it for various reasons).
Yup. Canada's F-18Cs (aka CF-18s) are ancient and were so bashed up that we ended up buying used Australian leftovers for parts and repair as a stopgap until we can decide what we're doing for our next-gen fighters.
Basically we're procrastinating on the decision because the F-35 is at once the best and worst option - our closest allies are heavily standardized on it. But it's also a boondoggle.
For a while Canada looked to be moving up to the modernized version of the F-18 platform, the F/A-18 Super Hornet. But then Boeing started a fight with Bombardier, a company that the Canadian Liberal government is very protective of. So the plans to invest in F/A-18 planes was scrapped.
So Canada is basically endlessly procrastinating on what new jet to buy because of the F-35 boondoggle.
> Only three of seven F-18 fighter jets purchased from Australia by the Canadian government have been integrated into the air force so far, and the Department of National Defence says key upgrades to as much as one-third of Canada's fighter force will take up to five years, according to documents recently tabled in the House of Commons.
> The slow introduction of the used warplanes — meant to bolster Canada's existing CF-18s squadrons — and the long timeline for radar refurbishment have the opposition Conservatives questioning the value of the interim fleet.
> When it first announced the plan three years ago, the government said it expected to keep most of the existing CF-18 fleet flying until 2032.
Is the article correct? Anyway I'm not laughing because here in Switzerland we have as well to replace our relatively old F-18 which might generate a huge debate with the potential result of nothing happening (F-35 is as well one of the candidates, but I've personally always been against it for various reasons).