Tag: f-35

And by “throw in the towel” I’m referring to the F-35 possibly-stealthy fighter bomb truck. We’re finally seeing through the malarkey that Harper, MacKay and that dumb-assed ex-cop have been spinning about this aircraft defending Canada’s northern frontier.   We know it’s for anything but that job.  Well, not anything exactly.  

Now it’s not only way over-budget, way overdue but the Pentagon is having to lower its performance requirements so it won’t have to call the F-35 a complete turkey. If the plane can’t achieve its specified combat radius, change the specifications.   If it can’t land within the specified runway length,

Barely two months ago, F-35 boosters were thumping their chests as Japan announced plans to buy about 50 of the aircraft.  That “done deal”, they argued, virtually ensured other prospective buyers would set aside their reservations and also take the leap. Now it seems the Japanese are getting F-35-itis.   Japanese

Steve Harper knows how to weasel out of commitments.   Remember how we were in Afghanistan “to stay” until we had the Taliban crushed and the country safe for democracy?   Harper wrung every drop of political gravy he could squeeze out of that one and then walked way.  Then he upped

This morning I had a humorous item up on the F-35 brouhaha that occurred in the House of Commons yesterday. The superficial political excitement was focused on this statement from Conservative Julian Fantino: Fantino said a recent report criticizing the purchase in the Canadian Foreign Policy Journal was “critical of

It May be Overpriced Crap But We’re Good with It. The man now in charge of the Pentagon’s weapons purchases has lambasted the F-35 programme, denouncing it as “acquisition malpractice.” “I can spend quite a few minutes on the F-35, but I don’t want to,” Frank Kendall, the Pentagon’s Acting

It’s mainly this: Lockheed has mastered the game of spreading around a government’s money to see to it that government has to keep sending it more money.   Not socialism exactly, but… The jet fighter is needed to replace aging U.S. military planes, but — already the most costly weapons system

F-35 Killer? With Europe hovering on the brink of meltdown, with pipelines to stop, with the Republican presidential clown car careening through the Deep South, it’s easy to lose sight of the F-35 controversy. Fortunately there are some, like the Ottawa Citizen‘s David Pugliese, who keep an eye on the

The lead story in the New York Times today is about the U.S. reducing its military budget by at least $450 billion over a decade, part of the agreement reached at the time of the debt ceiling extension. Leon Panetta, the Defence Secretary is to outline plans this week on

Canadians have a basic RIGHT to know the true cost of expenditures, particularly massive ones, like the biggest military procurement in our history. Anyone who follows the F-35 story has been frustrated with what amounts to a misinformation campaign from the Conservatives. This government simply makes up figures, experts can’t