Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!henry From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) Newsgroups: can.politics Subject: Re: Canada's defence : Doesn't anyone care? Message-ID: <5886@utzoo.UUCP> Date: Tue, 20-Aug-85 13:48:34 EDT Article-I.D.: utzoo.5886 Posted: Tue Aug 20 13:48:34 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 20-Aug-85 13:48:34 EDT References: <833@utcs.UUCP>, <835@utcs.UUCP> Organization: U of Toronto Zoology Lines: 37 > ... For the several > billion dollars that the feds spent on re-equipping the CAF with > the CF-18s, they could have entirely re-equipped the ground forces > and militia with up to date equipment. > > If you know anybody in the militia, you know how bad their equipment > is (ofter circa Korean War vintage)... It is worth remembering that the fighters that the CF-18s replaced were also very nearly Korean War vintage. No joke: both the CF-101 and the CF-104 were in design during the Korean War, and in service not too long thereafter. The CAF needed new fighters fifteen years ago. > The other point this gent made > was that Canada's NATO committment could have been made with ground > air-defences, not with aircraft... A good point, although perhaps not entirely sufficient. Note also that Canada's NATO committment accounts for only about 40% (if I have the number right -- been a while since I looked at the details) of the CF-18 buy. The rest are for the air defence of Canada. This division of responsibility is quite explicit, since the US waived R&D-recovery charges on the CF-18s intended for North American air defence and not for the ones headed for NATO. > It seems to me that defence-wise we don't seem to get a good return > on the tax dollar spent on the CF-18. This is unfortunately true, but cancelling the CF-18 buy is not the way to solve it. The way to solve it would have been to buy more and better fighters ten years ago; if you think inflation has been bad for consumers, check out jet-fighter prices! The fact is, our armed forces pure and simple need more money. -- Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry