If any changes are made it will be that the military will be required to pay to have their maintenance staff trained by the manufacture then have them sign NDAs. There's no way arms manufactures are going to give up their secret sauce, "it's for security!"

If they think 55% for a plane fleet is bad, they might be appalled at our actual vehicle out of service rate for the ground fleet.

Wasn't the F-35 a joint development?

Our other options included no such terms, and, frankly, the F-35's stealth capability is much more important in offensive theatres than defensive ones where multiple overlapping radar frequencies are both feasible and already exist and active countermeasures can be freely used without fear of detection.

Canada's military is defensive in nature and it's primarily focused on patrolling the Arctic. For that purpose, the F-35's range and payload make it rather... unideal.

I think the whole Canadian military could use an overhaul. It'd be pretty sweet if the Canadian military specialized in disaster relief, and medical capabilities. Our military could be regularly deployed within our borders for forest fires, hurricanes, and the like. Plus: if we trained a fuck load of medical staff in the military, then they might filter into provincial healthcare systems post-retirement.

Its a little weird to have thousands of people just waiting around for a war to break out.

Honestly not a bad idea. We still need current gen fighters though.

That seems like an unfair characterization, seems like they've posted on a bunch of topics and don't seem particularly "angry"? I've only just skimmed though, so I might be wrong.

When the pilot ejected is guaranteed that the plane is a total loss. The ejection system triggers a number of things other that the ejection mechanism. All of the secure communication equipment erases itself to prevent it or is key material from falling into unauthorized hands. The plane doesn't squak its position so that it is harder for someone you don't want to have access to the plane to find it. Had the plane been lost in territory that the US doesn't control or that is controlled by an unfriendly country the US wants it to be hard for them to know that the jet is down and where it is so that the US has a better chance of getting there first. The probably can't be disabled to prevent an, "Oops, I forgot to turn it on" mistake in unfriendly territory and to reduce the risk of it not working.