Tories defend $9B jet purchase

I flew fighters in the RCAF and what has troubled me for years is that we don't always think about the real threat and what type of aircraft is needed, but make a decision based on where where the jobs go. An example would be the F-5 in 1968 which was ill suited for any possible role in Canada. I have confidence that the F-35 will be an excellent superiority fighter but is it going to do the job for Canada? Remember that at the present time there is no supesonic bomber threat and any fighter that is capable of near mach 1 speed can make an intercept on a subsonic threat. If we ever get to a real shooting war then it would be nice to call in the stealthy F-35s but I don't think we can afford to operate the number required to cover our land mass. Let me concentrate for a while on protecting that land mass by putting a number of sub or transonic fighters with long legs (range) accross the north. The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk had a buddy-refueling system that was used in Vietnam and could extend the range by escorting our fighters outbound and inbound with mid-air refuelling. That system could be deployed in our north and provide flexability to fighter operations since you can't expect to have 707 refuellers all accross the north. Having 2 or 3 of those Skyhawks in each squadron, no matter what type of fighter we end up with would be a great asset, not to mention that this aircraft is quite capable of defending itself, it did after all make the first kill in the Gulf War. It would be interestig to find out what 100 refurbished Skyhawks would cost. I have always thought it was too bad we didn't get them instead of the F-5 in the late 60s.

What numbers would you be looking at as far as defending this country? And where would you Base them?

Good question and those decisions require some long term planning. Currently we have a limited number of suitable facilities such as Iqualuit, Churchill, Yellowknife, Watson Lake, and Whitehorse that could support personnel and these would probably be the best places to start military presence in the north. Satellite and emergency fields would come on line to fill gaps in coverage as that presence increased. I would keep 4 long range cost effective fighters and buddy refueling fighters, probably sub-sonic on the outlying alert bases. The F-35's would be held further south at larger bases, probably Bagotville and Cold Lake with air refueling support. Not ideal but a start.