all you fucking hippies can stfu, we dont need to be some pussy welfare country. Believe it or not Canada does have military obligations to live up to.

The cf-18 are getting pretty outdated and the F-35 is the ONLY 5th generation fighter that is available to us, and by far the best available at this time. the other countries buying them include United Kingdom, Italy, Netherlands, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Norway, turkey, isreal, japan, saudi arabia, finland, brazil.... list goes on. I dont think i want to lie in a country that has shittier fighter jets than denmark.

Politically of course it makes no sense, but an argument can be made that the latest offerings by Sukhoi are superior than even the F-22.

military equipment isn't cheap. It's going to be used for defending our asses, so it better be up to date and isn't made in China.

9bill is not that bad, considering what other big countries spend on their air force

sukhoi was exactly what i was thinking of when the russians were brought up lol.

Hmm... well we COULD use some fighter jets, Just in case

The helmets they use are fucking rad!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...lay_System.jpg

US airforce has all their F35's led by 1 F22 no?

guess ours are just for patrolling

we spent 1.7 billion for 2 weeks of olympic games in our backyard (debt without sea-to-sky & canada line and what we've made back from the venues/condos)

yet the federal government spends 10 billion to protect our airspace for at least several decades.

do the math

imagine walking around with this thing haha

http://www.redferret.net/wp-content/...lmet_small.jpg

all i have to say is money well spent
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i dont know if some of you are getting excited because $9 billion sounds like a really really scary big number...

usually these kinds of contracts are spread out over like a 2-5 year period, they usually dont get a container from china with 35 GTR's.... I mean, 35 jets all at once.

so basically this might be closer to $3billion per year. that still might sound really really scary to some of you who only make $14/hour, but the 2010 Budget is 280.5 billion. that means less than half of a percent of Canadas expendatures are on these planes.

some more numbers to throw at you, Canada's military spending is roughly $20billion a year which is 13th in the world, and less than 1.5% of its GDP. by comparison the USA spends $670billion/ year and nearly 4.5% of its GDP, Russia spends $65billion or $3.5% of its GDP, hell, even brazil spends more on their military than we do.

infact, theres only 7 countries in the top 50 countries of military spending who spend less of their GDP on their military than Canada... and one of them is Switzerland

in conclusion, $9billion sounds like alot, but isnt really that much when you're talking about a country's spending

9billion isn't that much in the larger scale of things.

we're dealing with a countries bankroll here. not some individuals.

F-35 costs 191 million per unit while the F-22 costs 150 million. (wikipedia)

F-22 is also virtually dead. US has ceased all funding for the program and no more orders are in place for anymore to be in production.

Also all you hippies shouldn't be so scared either. If the Liberal's take control by the next election you can be sure this order will be scrapped.

from wiki:

I thought the F22 was -it- for aerial combat and the F35 is just an more rounded/versatile based on the raptor and that at one point they were considering just loading the F22 up with a bombing package to add another dimension to it

also from wiki:

OMG 9 BILLION!!@

da fei gei

yeah man, that's a kick ass looking plane

Raptor > *

http://modernations.com/images/milit...-22-Raptor.jpg

http://washingtonindependent.com/wp-...22-raptors.jpg

http://politicspeaksvalleys.files.wo...ighter-jet.jpg

would love to see one of either plane at an airshow

Best job in the world imo

IIRC, the reason the US stopped placing orders for the raptor is b/c the F35 is cheaper to make

I want to see what those look like on the inside but those are balls out awesome already.

I'd rather we blow $9b on planes than giving it to hippie assholes, which is what the government all too much.

I think the OP expects the gov to buy 2nd hand jet fighters like the sumbraines.

So OP you want our country to use outdates jet fighters to protect our country and you wonder why a lot of other nations thinks Canada is a joke?

At least now i can sleep soundly knowing that I have C35's protecting the air above me, thank you Canadian gov't, thank you for allowing me to sleep.

Harper is also making sure that $30 bln in parts get sourced from Canadian manufaturers for this plane if the deal is to go through.

Anyone know where the f35 compares to other jets? I don't mind spending money on military...aslong as we buy the best planes for the money.
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To be completely honest, I don't give a shit about the fighter jets, but for fucks sakes we need the Cyclones to replace the Sea Kings ASAP. They should all have been scrapped in the mid eighties, but hey they're still here.

The F35 is one of few "fifth-generation" jet fighters. Basically the top-end of planes in terms of technology; like the F35 having basic stealth capability. Many of the other planes in that category are either prototypes, or have yet to enter production. The only 5th-gen plane that is expected to enter production at the same time as the F35 is the Russian Sukhoi PAK FA. The previous 4.5-gens are relatively older, but somewhat decent planes in terms of abilities, like the Typhoon, Rafale M, Gripen, F16, and updated versions of the MiG-35 F15 and F18.

If it was up to me, and it was a production model, and it was ethical for Canada to buy Russian military hardware, I'd want the Sukhoi Su-47 protecting our skies. Shit's badass.
http://www.thaitechnics.com/aircraft/tg2/su47.jpg