Harper Government blows $9 billion of your tax dollars on F35 jet fighters!

[pastarocket]

The way that the federal government under PM Harper spends our tax dollars makes my blood boil these days.

This article highlights the government plans to buy 65 jet fighters to replace the 40 year old CF-18 jet fighters:

http://www.canada.com/business/Feds+...911/story.html

What pisses me off is that this government spends our hard earned tax dollars on military priorities instead of building a better healthcare program, social housing, and education for Canadians.

Do the feds even comparison shop and review defence contracts to get the best deal? Read the article yourself. Canada is getting single engine jet fighters, at around $140 million each, when you can buy twin engine jet fighters at a lower price.

Now I am all for the country to have a decent military which has the equipment to defend our airspace and coastline from foreign threats, fishing poachers, etc. But $9 billion dollars ??????


Your thoughts about the latest government purchase on the military?

[Ducdesmo]

It's actually 16 billion due to future maintainece, training, and others. Complete BS. While the global economy is in a financial crisis, we are busy blowing money on stuff like this instead of learning from others mistake.
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[CorneringArtist]

What a waste. The plane itself is pretty good (ie. it has basic stealth capability), but to spend THAT much to update our air force? I don't think I've heard the word "air superiority" used very much when Canadian military operations is discussed.

[b0unce. [?]]

imagine how much pot that would be @_@

[Not really racist!]

Spending money on the military is justified... but 9 billion?

shit.

[rice cooker]

Should have spent some that to incinerate the fucking downtown east side.
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[murd0c]

Ok I'm not happy about it but that's something that's needed. The CF-18's we have are a joke and with the large land mass we have we need reliable jet's to protect our sky's. We can't just sit back because we are next to the US. We have some of the best military training in the world and we need to back it up with a more creditable air force.

Every country and nation have issues with healthcare, social housing but if shit hits the fan we have to protect our own backs which what will happen with this purchase.

[Hondaracer]

lets fall behind the rest of the world and look like a bigger joke than ever..

or maybe we should have just forked out the full price and picked up some F22's..

i'd rather have my tax dollars buy some fighter jets than help a homeless coalition.

[Bouncing Bettys]

Now the timing might not be the best but the purchase of these planes was going to happen one way or another. Long before the idiot Conservatives won a minority government, Canada had already spent quite a bit into the developement of the JSF F-35 knowing the CF-18s were long in the tooth and needing replacement sooner than later.

[jdmhaze]

Mr. Harper

[FerrariEnzo]

wow would we need jet fighters?

isnt canadian military just made up of peacekeepers! lol
no guns, armour, tanks.. no nothing...

[carisear]

Originally Posted by pastarocket

What pisses me off is that this government spends our hard earned tax dollars on military priorities instead of building a better healthcare program, social housing, and education for Canadians.

now i can't stand quoting from wiki, but i'm too lazy to get a real source, so here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:To...97_dollars.png

go ahead and keep spouting your socialist propaganda saying harper eats babies.

the timing is NEVER right to spend money on military in canada, yet it's ALWAYS perfect to spend more on healthcare. we've spent more on healthcare already, time to spend more on other things as well now.

[taylor192]

What most don't appreciate is that our military is very linked to the US cause the political and economic fallout would be severe. There's reasons we buy American military products rather than cheaper European versions. There's a reason we're in Afghanistan.

Some military spending is required to maintain a good relationship with out biggest trading partner, and the biggest economy in the world. Sucks to spend so much and overpay for what we need, yet not every decision can be made from a purely budgetary point of view.

[Lomac]

Originally Posted by pastarocket

Your thoughts about the latest government purchase on the military?

It's a good idea. The F-18's, while a good plane, are starting to reach an age where they need constant maintenance to keep flying. Canada was a JSF35 member from the start, so it's not a surprise that we're purchasing new planes.

[EmperorIS]

i certainly wouldn't mind one of these bad boys flying over my neighborhood once in a while :P

[tiger_handheld]

does anyone recall the figher that a canadain manuf. designed and built a loooooong time ago? it was before the "F-xx" days...

[Lomac]

Originally Posted by tiger_handheld

does anyone recall the figher that a canadain manuf. designed and built a loooooong time ago? it was before the "F-xx" days...

Avro Arrow

[murd0c]

Originally Posted by Lomac

Avro Arrow

great movie, it's sad if we never did that guaranteed we would have the best air force in the world. Even to todays standards it's a good plane.

[Noir]

Originally Posted by murd0c

great movie, it's sad if we never did that guaranteed we would have the best air force in the world. Even to todays standards it's a good plane.

Really now? It's a 1960's plane. Me thinks the Canadian Pride floweth too much on this one.

[murd0c]

Originally Posted by Noir

Really now? It's a 1960's plane. Me thinks the Canadian Pride floweth too much on this one.

Ok when I saw the movie in high school 12yrs ago it was decent. It still was unbelievable technology for the time period.

[Noir]

Originally Posted by murd0c

Ok when I saw the movie in high school 12yrs ago it was decent. It still was unbelievable technology for the time period.

Yeah I saw the doc too and I agree.

[ericthehalfbee]

I'm glad they spent the money. We have always had world class pilots in our Air Force, now they get some hardware to go with it.

I feel a sense of pride in our military, despite our modest abilities. I have no problems with them getting budget increases to update equipment. I personally think they should spend more money.

Back at the end of WWII we had the 3rd largest navy in the world. I'd love to see money spent on naval vessels too, considering our vast coastline.

[pastarocket]

Do the feds even comparison shop and review defence contracts to get the best deal? Read the article yourself. Canada is getting single engine jet fighters, at around $140 million each, when you can buy twin engine jet fighters at a lower price.

Now I am all for the country to have a decent military which has the equipment to defend our airspace and coastline from foreign threats, fishing poachers, etc. But $9 billion dollars ??????


My biggest beef with the spending on these F-35 jet fighters is the astronomic cost for single engine jet fighters.

My point is that Canada's air force is not getting the best product for the billions of dollars in spending on American made weaponry.

I may not know anything about the defense contracting bidding process, but I know that it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the weaknesses in this jet.

That canada.com article mentions some critics, American guys, who think that these F-35 jets lack features that even the old CF-18 jets have.

Hmmm, $16 billion dollars, which includes maintenance costs, for 65 jet fighters. Each jet fighter has one engine. The CF-18 jets have TWO engines.

If you google about the U.S. Airforce, the wikipedia site has information about the twin engine F15E jet fighters that the U.S. military uses.

You would think that the Canadian defence minister and his staff would actually find a jet with twin engines instead of one.

Are there any pilots on this thread? Twin engine or single engine?

Is the Canadian forces getting the best bang for its buck with its F-35s?

[Lomac]

Why are you focusing on a single- vs twin-engine debate now? Twin-engines don't necessarily mean they're inherently better than single-engine planes.

What else would we buy? The F-22 has an export ban, the F-15 and -16 are 30 years old, and the F-18's are primarily carrier based. As for the Typhoon... well, that's essentially Europe's variant of the F-35.

[jackmeister]

did you expect them to consider chinese/russian made fighter jets?