Apparently, someone looking into wikileaks recent leak has discovered American diplomats have been working to push other countries into buying these planes. In this instance, Norway. By using the excuse of conformity between NATO members to standardize on the American built plane. The article doesn't mention Canada at all, but its not difficult to put two and two together.
Of course, the Liberals wanted to open bidding to competing planes. I'm not a fan of the Liberals but they did manage at least to keep us out of Iraq and pay down the debt which the Conservatives are showing so far incapable of, so I'll give them that. But I do believe if we're buying planes, we should be buying the best plane out there for the best price possible, not merely (and probably quickly) caving in to salesmanship of American interests. That's just pathetic.
And people out there are complaining that theres nothing useful in these latest wikileaks. Not useful to the government, perhaps.
7 comments:
Liberals... aren't those the guys who made big promises about the GST and helicopters, and only delivered on the helicopter part of the promise. I'm trying to remeber the number of deaths those old cans that required more maintenance time than flying time resulted in. These things were around as long as Cretien had been an MB... or longer. Hoiw much credibility could that party stiull have insofar as military spending goes?
as far as military spending goes? very little, I'm sure, but they balanced the budget every year at the very least. Conservatives haven't shown themselves to be much better than the Liberals in any quantifiable way. While I agree that our armed forces surely needs new vehicles and technology, and that the Liberals didn't really do a great job supplying them as such. I do believe that both are probably equally corrupt, or if not equal, the Liberals have a slight edge. The point isn't to compare the Liberals to the Conservatives. The point is to call them both on their bullshit, not side with one despite all reason simply because you despise the other side completely, no matter how righteously. Thanks for the comment. Of course thats all moot as I'm more than likely voting for the Pirate Party next election, personally.
A quick search on Wikipedia will tell you that there WAS a competition between three companies for the JSF and two planes were built. The F-35 was the winner of those two aircraft. Canada was in on the development costs from the beginning and was involved in the competition from the beginning. Industrial offsets of manufacture parts (already well under way in Canada) will more than cover the cost of the aircraft.
Thanks for that info, Riverman. I searched and only saw the Liberals complaining about lack of competition, so I assumed that was indeed the case. And I am aware that building it in Canada and the jobs will more than offset the cost. I'm still of the opinion that there was improper political interference in the decision making process. I'm not saying I'm against the planes, I'm just hoping we're getting the best planes we can and making the best decision without undue meddling from the U.S.
We got great aircraft last time didn't we? Funny how there was no news about competitive bids for the recent acquisition of the C-130J Hercules or C-17 Globemaster III aircraft. This is just the Liberals talking out of their behinds, and the MSM (and the blogisphere apparently) reporting it as fact.
Here is a link - it's the first one that comes up on a Google search.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Strike_Fighter_Program
Riverman, I looked into it and apparently you're wrong, there were no competitive bids. There was a competition between the two planes but the F-35 was chosen solely because it was deemed the "better plane", not through a tendering process.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/17/business/global/17fighter.html
it probably is the best choice, but the Liberals as the official opposition do have the duty to ask if the best choice is the most cost effective one, I suppose.
I'm not wrong, sorry. This was the competition where Canada chose this aircraft program, the F-35 being the winner. In this industry, companies can no longer afford to spend billions of dollars on a prototype flyable weapons system like a fighter just on speculation, hoping some countries will purchase it. Look around, it's not done any more. This is nothing more than a Liberal sound bite.
This is a very complex issue and without insight into the industry you can't really see why you're wrong.
Tell you what. If you still think you are correct, tell me which aircraft would compete for Canada's new fighter acquisition program and why they would be suitable.
Jeff
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