Discussions

The Canadian Armed Forces will be replacing their aging fleet of CF-188 hornets with the new f-35 lightning II joint strike fighter at a price tag of 9 billion dollars.  
 
The opposition has been rather critical of this decision, stating that this is not the time to shell out 9 billion on defense projects  
 
I think its important to note though, that Canada has been paying to develop the JSF program (along with USA, UK, France, Germany and a few others), which has been in development for years  
 
What do you think? Good Idea? Bad Idea?  
 
 
my thoughts are it needs to happen, and probably sooner than later, its my understanding that Canada started flying its CF-188s in 1982, getting a little old IMO  
 
That and we planned on doing this eventually, or else we wouldnt have chipped in on the development costs  
 
also with all of our allies flying the same jets, repairs and restocks could be done at ANY allied base, spare parts shared, armaments shared, if need be.  
 
last but not least, the air force is IMO our best bet to monitor our arctic and protect sea and land forces  
 
 
... but then a gain 9 billion is a nice chunk of change...  
 
 
 
thoughts?  
 
 
info:  
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-35_Lightning_II  
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CF-188  
 
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