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And the Gripen will be built here in Canada!!!!

I fucking hope so

Please do

Now that the US is sending them to Saudi, how secure will they be from investigation by foreign adversaries?

Plus, the entire supply chain system of relying on the US for software and hardware updates, having to physically send the planes to the US for maintenance, all while the US continues to talk about annexing us is completely fucking bonkers.

Even without the annexation threats the setup would be stupid.

I know it’s a fancy and advanced plane, but knowing how the US military industrial complex works I’m pretty sure you’re paying a high multiplier for no reason too.

Try searching Google with "f-35 sales before:2024-11-01". Countries were lining up to buy them. Boeing had a years long manufacturing backlog.

No matter how you, personally, feel about the F-35 and the US military-industrial complex, Trump wants to both increase exports in general and tout US military strength. Most of NATO running with the F-35 would have been great for both of those. He could have succeeded at it by doing nothing. Complete failure of his own goals.

The Gripen is certainly not as advanced as F-35 but its operating costs per flight hour are only 1/5th of the F-35 which is definitely a big consideration when you don't have a US-sized defense budget.

Canada should never trust any US military contractor ever again

I've been commenting on a bunch of threads the best way to deal with a bully is to tell them to fuck off and go play with everyone else in the playground. Glad we're taking the first few steps in the right direction.

Thing the article conveniently leaves out, at least one of the "retired air force officers" works at (or did, seems to be some obfuscation) Lockheed Martin.

Of course they are against switching, they will lose their cushy lobbyist jobs.

I would.

I hope we snub those unhinged fash. Fuck them.

Do it Canada! Purchase the SAAB and your pilots will have more seat time. The F-35 is a maintenance pig.

Do it!

Saabotage!

I hope they do it! It's one of the few countries that can do it without hurting itself too much.

It's what happens when you harm and betray a peaceful ally. Let's do this! 🍁

There is unfortunately a lot of nuance here.

A Gripen does not do the same things that an F35 does.

Europe simply does not have an answer to 5th or 6th generation fighters and I feel like wanting to be supporting of peoples respective countries and acknowledging the US being pretty awful right now is making people unwilling to acknowledge this glaring and incredibly important fault in western arms manufacturing outside of the US.

Humans benefit greatly when people, groups etc, specialize as less resources need to be wasted reinventing the wheel, but when it comes to defence, the current situations shows how flat footed CANZUK+EU* has been left by allowing the US to basically become the single source for some of the most crucial defence items.

Projects like FCAS need to cut the bureaucratic bullshit and speed up development as its increasingly obvious that the US is not a stable partner. CANZUK+EU* despite years of warning about these facts remained unwilling to spend, viewing it as inefficient, and with every individual state that has the capabilities holding recalcitrant attitudes, fighting over who gets to build what.

Basically, what I am saying, is that I would love to have non US weaponry, but if that weaponry can't compete with US weaponry, there isn't much of a point.

I mean, quite frankly, for us, Canada, the most important thing we could possibly do this decade, is to internally create our own ultimate strategic deterrents. Anything short of that would leave us completely defenceless to our greatest military threat, and largest neighbour. There is literally no chance we win any conventional war, so in a way, not even this fighter deal matters.

Euro canards my beloved

Gripen is a great jet for Canadian requirements.

I have no idea about the technical aspects but, with Murica not being an ally anymore, the F35 basically needing permission from Lockheed Martin to take off, and the F35 tech in the hands of the Saudi's and soon China... the F35s are worthless

Damn that's a sexy plane. Delta wing and canards? Hell yeah.

The Gripen is quite interesting, who would have guessed that licensing fighter jets for manufacturing on other countries (Embraer is building them too, Colombia bought some, other countries seem to want it too) would be a good strategy?

I'll wait 50 years for a Gripen to be sold on Aliexpress for 150 thousand dollars, 250 thousand with replacement parts with a cool paint job.

Elbows up!!

MAGA would hate Canada escaping their abuse.

JK, fuck American tech

Wasn't a major problem with the F35 that they can't fly in the Canadian north? Shouldn't we have at least some of our fleet that can be used throughout Canadian territory in our defense?