Comments:Canada announces $9 billion plan to purchase 65 F-35 fighters

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Don't they have anything, ANYTHING better to do with that money? I can not imagine a single scenario where Canada needs to use these things. As for the industry, wouldn't it be easier to just give the money for free to the workers/contractors and save all the trouble?

its about time Canada started upgrading there military. next is get rid of our horrible gun laws

In reality it's much more of a downgrade, than an upgrade! The F-35 is a substandard piece of $hit!

I'm really not happy, Canada has no need for these planes. We used to be know for our Peace Keeping. What happened to that face of Canada? The Conservatives made us a "military nation". I am happy for a lot of the things the conservatives have done. But this is NOT one of those things.

The fact of the matter is that nothing can get across the country faster than a jet. In times of emergencies, these jets are quite useful for showing military force. We should also remember that we are a part of NORAD, and as such have a responsibility to our NA countries. In addition to this, the CF-18s have less than 10 years left in their service life. As such, Canada needs to start upgrading our military. Not just with jets though. Our Navy is in need of Joint Support Ships to replace the Protecteur-class Auxiliary Replenishment Ships. We also need Amphibious Assault Ships to boost our force-projection ability. While I am a big-L Liberal, I think this is a step in the right direction and we need more of it.

I'm happy with what the DND has done. now we have one of the best jets in the world, top of the tanks with the leopard c2, artillery pieces with the m777, personal carriers are top notch with the LAV III we need to pour our money in to the military only fifty years ago we had the 3rd largest navy now we are like 35th in the world we need people join I can understand 190 million per plane is allot of money but we are the least defended border in the world I will sleep easer knowing that we one have state of the art technology in the air now as the last post said time to bring our navy up to the 21st century and he is right on the money with that . i know my point of view might be a bit jaded being in the military myself but we fight to keep you all safe

This as all about arctic control, which is a major long term strategy for the conservatives (the remainder of this post assumes this goal is positive, obviously if you reject this notion, this purchase makes no sense). Despite the political propaganda and out-of-context RAND simulations, this is quite an effective aircraft for this purpose, with the only major concern being its shorter-then-optimal ranged nature. Keep in mind though, this 'short-range' is a >1100 km radius from its fuelling source. For purposes of tactical geographical defense or control, this fighter's range is more than sufficient.

The major 'problem' with this aircraft is that it tries to do too much-- this is exactly what Canada's severely limited military budget would need.

If you are worried about the range, look at a map of canada, and using a compass (or effective computational analogue) draw a ~1000 km radius circle around each canadian airbase (this distance is reached in <30 minutes at top speed). If you do this, it looks like a new airbase will need to be placed to cover the far north, but that the rest of the country is well covered.

In America we are laughing at your "modern military" with "One of the best jets in the world", The F-35 is form Lockheed Martin's reject pile. That's why our military rarely uses it, except on rare occassions in auxiliary missions.

Aha, so the Conservatives see Canada getting into a potential war with Russia, Norway, Denmark and the U.S. over control of the arctic. Some funny Ideas that tool Stephen Harper has, Also I wonder who would lose that war, Two of the world's (former) superpowers? or a country of 30 million people that pollutes some of the world's most valuable freshwater resources trying to squeeze out a few drops of oil from some rubble in Alberta.

Nice job, Canada. Your new F-35's make you look so cool, eh?

Its about time we upgrade our military, Canada depends on other countries to protect them and our current CF-18 are a peice of shit, they are crashing insantly, we need a new and better fighter aircraft, people might think we are buying these airscraft just to make us look good, well they are pretty much the best aircraft in the world and we need a better military.

To those of you who are saying that this purchase is "ruining the peacekeeping face of Canada", you truly know nothing. You cannot peacekeep without sophisticated, modern weapon systems in the Air Force, Army and Navy. If you'd like to stand between to warring factions with outdated, broken weapons and equipment, go right ahead, but in order to be a successful peacekeeping force you have to be well equipped.

Also to you who said that the F-35 is from LM's "reject pile" and that the Americans (I'm assuming you are one) "rarely use" the F-35, you know even LESS! The F-35 isn't even in use ANYWHERE yet! You are truly a fool. Your F-22's haven't even been fully implemented into the USAF yet, though they are finally getting closer.

All of you liberals in Canada who think we should just leave our military dead in the water with old equipment, you go ahead and stand in a peacekeeping zone in one of our UN operation areas. If you're not behind our troops, feel free to stand in front of them.

The Defense Department's computers in Ottawa, have been used at least nine times,to vandalize Wikipedia's Site,to erase negative data regarding the Conservative government's spending billions on new stealth fighter aircrafts.And for FYI the amount is NOT 9 billion,it's at least $16 BILLION! But what's that to us Canadians,I ask,when we can afford the creation of a fake lake for a measly 1 billion. Anything goes with this government! Stephen Harper should visit the streets around the Ottawa Market Place,and mingle with the homeless. Alas,I don't think anything could change the mind of this Machiavellian autocrat.

Not the first time that the Harper dictatorship has changed information on Wikipedia. They changed information on MP's bios before being caught. Harper and company claim to be conservatives but I don't think so.

Canada has invested a whole $150 million into the program even though just a single, individual plane costs upwards of $190 million? No wonder the program has been so long in the making, nobody wants to pay for R&D. Turtlestack (talk) 00:30, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

an enormous waste of tax money on a third rate aircraft