Canada gives thumbs-up to F-35

[Dawes]

Presumably this quantity is firm?

https://www.defensenews.com/air/2023/01/09/canada-strikes-deal-to-buy-f-35s-from-lockheed-as-cf-18s-retire/

[Josh]

They’ve gone back and forth so many times about this I personally won’t believe it until I see an F-35 being filled with maple syrup.

[Colin]

First 4 in 2026, first operational squadron will be 2029

88 airframes, first batches will be  Lot 18, Block 4, so latest version

It will be a good idea to get them in batches, as we are short pilots, maintainers, modern facilities 

Anyone want to buy some used Aussie F-18?

 

[TrustMe]

I'm sure one of the requirement of the proposal was for the fighter to have two engines.

[Colin]

10 hours ago, TrustMe said:

I'm sure one of the requirement of the proposal was for the fighter to have two engines.

That was for the CF-18, but with engine reliability rates improving, that went from a must have to nice to have. 

[arcweasel]

1 hour ago, Colin said:

That was for the CF-18, but with engine reliability rates improving, that went from a must have to nice to have. 

The two engine thing did not pan out as well as expected with the CF-18 as the engines were so close together when we buggered up the metallurgy/manufacturing of the fan blades so they flew off, they often damaged the other engine anyway... and you had twice the points of failure.  It got better later, but overall twin engine just did not make a huge difference.  

[DougRichards]

On 1/10/2023 at 2:48 PM, Colin said:

First 4 in 2026, first operational squadron will be 2029

88 airframes, first batches will be  Lot 18, Block 4, so latest version

It will be a good idea to get them in batches, as we are short pilots, maintainers, modern facilities 

Anyone want to buy some used Aussie F-18?

 

What AA missiles are Canadian ex-RAAF FA-18s using?  Our Superbugs are cleared for Sidewinder AIM-9X, but when the FA-18 was in Australian service they were only cleared for ASRAAM as the short range AA missile, with the AIM-120 AMRAAM for longer ranges.  This of course made things difficult for plastic modellers who wanted to build an RAAF Classic Hornet as ASRAAMs in scale were hard to come by.