The government is concerned about appearance, so you’ll never know the truth.

MiG-19, the basis of Q-5 is considerably more powerful engine-wise than what it is being compared with. The A-4 in its later renditions was superb for light attack, better than most anything in its weight class until AMX hit the scene. I’m not so certain an AMX is obsolete even in the modern arena. Unlike Q-5 it was procured with survivability in mind. By the time you tried to fit AMX level of gear in the Q-5 you run out of internal volume and have to redesign the layout. May as well go Frogfoot at that point. Q-5 has one main attribute, its inexpensive to procure and relatively easy to set up its ground footprint.

I’d rather they throw money at a single engine A100M. Mount the engine on top to drive a tractor prop in the leading tip of the tall T tail. Guppy shape with a hinged head for quick ro-ro access. High wing. Offer pod engine underwing kits to create STOL conversions.

F-35A will ultimately suit them well. It’s not like there are any real options with McKay in there.

Canada Caps F-35 Funding After Audit

I honestly cannot tell if the spelling for the Canadian defense minister is Peter McKay or Peter MacKay from the various news outlets. But calling for his resignation seems to be all the rage in the great white north.

AAM-4B is a substantially larger AAM, suitable for kill shots on larger aircraft than the AMRAAM. Assuming the missiles hit with 100% accuracy and the target is within the lethal radius, it would take approximately two AMRAAM to impart the same punishment as one AAM-4B. This is one of the reasons that a Sea Sparrow derivative has been suggested for use as an AAM. More bang per pop.

That may have been the idea, but in practice SR-71 could not really ‘sneak in’. Despite various RCS reduction measures, it was very visible on radars…

True. And you definitely won’t be masking that solid mass of air in it’s wake. Getting in position to make the kill shot is the difficult part, ignoring engineering limitations to actually perform the shot.