The JPO negotiates each contract for each partner..all they would have required would have been to inform the JPO and they would get deliveries probably within 3-3.5 years.
FY2017 F-35As begin delivery in May of 2018. If Canada ordered F-35s today, they can get in on the tail end of the FY2017 run and start getting jets in early to mid 2019.
for instance, a pilot claiming ‘f-35 can maintain mach 1.2 for 150 miles albeit not supercruise in a technical sense without ‘fuelgulping’ afterburners, while a previous pilot just stated the month before it only took ‘a little bit a/b to stay supersonic,
then the logical conclusion is, the 150 miles @ M1.2 is true, the ‘without fuelgulping a/b’ refer to ‘just a teeny weeny bit a/b’
-ergo ‘not supercruise in a technical sense’
That has been debated to death. I can be explained in a myriad of ways including different flight profiles, loads, etc without ever needing ANY A/B of any kind.
Given that you are buying a jet that you are planning on using for 30+ years, it makes sense to plan ahead for potential adversaries. You can already see that 5th gen platforms are being developed by the nations that generated the adversary fighters that you train against today (Mig, Sukoi, etc).
ok, so its down to carrying 50% more aam than F-35, (or using their words: 4RR + 2IR)
lol.. It’s save to say that EVERY user on the planet would gladly give up 2 WVR missiles in order to have the F-35’s VLO RCS. Good luck getting close enough in a GripenE to use them in a 5th gen fight. :stupid:
Also bare in mind that a vast majority of the time, the F-35A’s combat radius (590nm with w/o SDD buffer) is referring to the A2G config while carrying 4000lb of JDAMs. In the A2A role (4 AAMs), the F-35A’s combat radius (assumed to include the SDD buffer) is 760nm.
As we have seen by Canada’s politicians du-jour, there is a urgency.
And lets say after the Tender is done after months/years?(see other similar tender) and F-35 won. how fast could Canada procure F-35A as there are many other Nations on the order list?
Come on!! We are talking years over years here.
FIFY…
btw, there is headroom built into the F-35 program so that nobody has to “cut in line” and you can have a shiny new F-35 about 2.5 years after placing the order. That 2.5 years is the same for any modern fighter, unless you cut in line (ala Egypt & Rafale).
I have not followed all the ins and outs of the CF-18 replacement saga but I do remember reports of LM trying to persuade some Canadian entity to sign up for F-35 when (I think) the Canadian government had made it clear that several options were to be evaluated before a decision was made. It would not surprise me if the Canadian government developed a deep dislike of Lockheed Martin as a result.
The Canadian Government joined the SDD program in 2002 and signed the Production MOU in 2006.
Funny…. nobody back then mentioned that “several options were to be evaluated” before Canada rushed to become the second Partner to sign the MOU. Wonder what the hurry was if there were other options that needed evaluation?
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