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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