The gripen E won’t be in service before several years and Canada would have to pay the big price to get it.

Had Canada asked Sweeden 15 years ago to make a derivative of the gripen C, they would probably have accepted, the gripen E would already be in service and Canada would be building parts of it, including for international customers. Instead they chose to embark in the F-35 program which is not well adapted for the RCAF needs.

The whole idea is ludicrous. (though perhaps slightly less so than suggesting the F-106…) The Gripen is fundamentally unsuitable for Canada’s requirements. It is a tiny jet with literally half the thrust of an original Hornet, itself not a particularly large plane. It simply isn’t a design that lends itself to long-range operation and it isn’t capable of carrying a large radar that would be useful when performing long-range intercepts or cruise missile defense. There is also zero economic case for participation in the Gripen program because the plane is being produced only in tiny numbers. The entire Gripen E order book is only ~100 planes.

If Canada were interested in investing the billions of dollars it would take to develop a new variant of an existing fighter they would be far better served to just buy an F-15E variant… an aircraft that already has the range, sensors, interoperability that Canada would want. (Or obviously the F-35, which while not as long-ranged as the F-15E, is still significantly longer ranged than the F-18s Canada has been using for decades and offers a whole range of other advantages I don’t need to repeat here.)

Wrong; India just did….

When will fanboys realize that there is much more to purchasing a fighter than just the technical specs?

India has never formally been offered the F-35… :rolleyes:

There have been some preliminary discussions, etc, but that is all. (that is true of essentially all recent 4th generation fighter buys…. Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi, Egypt, India, Bahrain… )

From looking at those pictures of the F-35s stationned on the amphib carrier, it looks like the F-35 has a relatively large wingspan. With folding wings, the carrier could have carried more. Maybe if the wing had folded after the first wing pylons, it would have been a good compromise. There would have been just one light station outboard for the AIM-9X. Maybe the LHAs/LHDs could have carried about 4 more planes in aircraft carrier configuration. Depends if they want to use their amphibs as carriers regularly I guess, and it they want to use them in stealth configuration most of the time.

The F-35 already has a remarkably small footprint for an aircraft of its size. It is bigger than a Harrier certainly, but then a Harrier is a very small fighter.

If the F-35B were designed with folding wings it wouldn’t get much smaller and it would add weight, complexity, cost, etc.

Beacause it is “””vastly more capable””” ?

With the F-35 becoming operational and cheaper by the year there is really no point in a buyer paying Rafale prices for Rafale level capability.

Looks like Canada is going to purchase 18 Super Hornets and push the start of the classic Hornet replacement back at least another 3-4 years…

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/fighter-jet-purchase-announcement-1.3862210

What does this mean for Canadian international deployments? IMO Canada will acquire those 18 SH, would bet my house they will be F models, for the sole purpose of deploying overseas on operations and keep the classic Hornets for NORAD duties, managing the fleet to get remaining flight hours. I also expect the Canadians to use either US Navy or RAAF flight training and conduct no training themselves.

Wow, incompetence on parade…

Canada isn’t nearly a large enough force to operate two different types, especially if they own only 18 of one type. So either they need to pick the Super Hornet and be done with it, or they need to pick something else. Buying 18 Super Hornets as an “interim” aircraft is just an attempt to deceive stupid voters, which it seems are not in short supply.

This whole thing is just an attempt to avoid an open competition…

Why would they mothball them?
I’ve said they are re-negotiating the deal, that’s all.
The bloddy deal has been what.. 4 or 5 years delayed?

Who said anything about mothballs?

You are the one who said it “seems” the deal was cancelled.

Now you claim it is being renegotiated.

Do you have an actual source or is this just more of your usual?

That was back in August. And way before that, Boeing stated that the FBW issue had been corrected.

Yes, way back in August… less than 4 months ago. Since you put it that way it has probably been cancelled without so much as a whisper. They are probably waiting until they have finished cutting up the planes they have already built to say something about the cancellation publicly.

You are aware that not a singel F-15SA has yet to be delivered.
This delay has nothing to do with Congress clearance, but there is a hold-up. And why Boeing has been so tight lipped for so many years, has to do with negotiations over the contract.

It is late, stop the presses.

Whatever happend with the F-15SA deal? It seems it have been cancelled due to delays and high cost. Now they are negotiating for a new deal.

Do they really not have google where you are? Seems to have been cancelled? Really?

Saudi F-15SA basing and unit plans revealed
08 August 2016

The US government has revealed basing and unit plans for the Royal Saudi Air Force’s (RSAF’s) Boeing F-15SA (Saudi Advanced) Eagle fleet ahead of the commencement of deliveries.

The details were disclosed in early August in a Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps) request for information (RfI) for F-15SA support that will run from March 2017 until March 2021.

According to the solicitation, the F-15SA will be operated by 55 Formal Training Unit (FTU) and 6 Squadron (currently an F-15S unit) at King Khalid Air Base (KKAB) in the south-west of Saudi Arabia; 29 Squadron (not currently stood-up) at King Faisal Air Base (KFAB) in the north-west of the country; and 92 Squadron (currently an F-15S unit) and the Fighter Weapons School at King Abdulaziz Air Base (KAAB) on the Gulf coast near Bahrain.

The RSAF is to receive 152 F-15SAs, of which 84 will be new build and 68 will be remanufactured F-15S platforms. Procured under a USD29.4 billion Foreign Military Sale (the largest in US history), the F-15SA is the most advanced variant of the Eagle ordered to date. Enhanced features include upgraded avionics (with a digital ‘glass’ cockpit); a BAE Systems Digital Electronic Warfare System/Common Missile Warning System (DEWS/CMWS); fly-by-wire controls; an infrared search-and-track (IRST) system; and the Raytheon APG-63(V)3 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar. The aircraft will also be fitted with new flight control components/surfaces from Goodrich and the F-15S Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-229 powerplant will be replaced with the more powerful General Electric F110-GE-129.

http://www.janes.com/article/62819/saudi-f-15sa-basing-and-unit-plans-revealed