Regarding the 65 planed Canadian F35s -
It hasn't been dropped from consideration, all that is happened is a party that won the election had an election promise to not buy it.
What's actually happened is this - just 2 weeks ago, the Canadian government paid millions, nearly 40 to be exact, to remain an F35 partner and keep their seat at the table, as there has been a paper "contest" of sorts, with LM, Dassault, the Eurofighter group, MacDoug and the Superhornet people, and Saab having all sent representatives to plead the case for their fighter to replace the aging CF18s. There will likely still be a real fly off/contest of sorts, however the F35 is STILL in the competition. A good friend of mine for the last 30 years is the CO of our test fighter squadron and is right in the middle of all of this right now. The F35 purchase has been cancelled, under the guise of it being chosen without any competition, but the F35 is STILL in contention, and is in fact rumored to be the leader in the paper competition so far, again, versus all the other aircraft. The Liberal government knows that it'll look foolish if it wins, and has floated ideas such as doing what Australia did, buying Superhornets in small numbers, like 12 or 24, as an interim fix, however nothing has been decided yet. All that they've done is promise to have a competition to see which of the currently available gen 4.5 and higher fighters would be the best buy.
There have been flip flops less outrageous out there, so don't be surprised if the F35 in fact wins the official fly off, in whatever form that takes, and ends up being the CF18 replacement after all. It's probably a coin flip right now, with the SuperHornet, either interim or full buy on one side, and the F35 on the other. The Eurofighter is almost as much $ as the F35, the Rafale would render the RCAF's huge stocks of Aim120, Aim9, bombs, and gun ammo worthless and require complete replacement, and the Gripen has been declared "unfit" for the RCAF by insiders, for some unknown and likely ridiculous reason.
There is a huge economic factor here too, there are many parts and components for the F35 being constructed in Canada by Canadian aerospace companies in that industry, and those jobs = gone if the F35 isn't chosen, and Canada could face other penalties and economic fallout for dropping out. I'm just saying that it's a part of this equation as well, not the be all end all part of the debate.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/f35-stealth-fighter-jet-1.3696269Canada has so far forked over more than $311 million to develop the F-35 — without any guarantee it will actually buy the multibillion-dollar stealth fighter.
The most recent instalment was made June 24, when the Liberal government quietly paid $32.9 million to the U.S. program office overseeing development of the warplane, despite having promised during last year's election campaign not to buy the F-35.
The contribution keeps Canada at the table as one of the nine partners in the project for the next year. Partners get a discount when purchasing the stealth fighter, and have access to billions of dollars in contracts associated with producing the plane.
The only thing that is certain regarding the RCAF's fighter program right now is that the current CF18s are timed OUT. The entire batch of nearly 140 that were purchased long ago were F18A and B models, which have been constantly upgraded along the way, and they all are very high time ariframes. Our guys are constantly having issues sourcing and procuring parts and keeping them flying. There are roughly 62 single seat and 18 2 seat fighters being upgraded to the current standard flying, the rest are either in mothballs/storage or have been canabilized here and there, and of those 80 only 35 at max are able to fly at any given time, and many of those are represented in the 410 training squadron and not combat coded and ready to fight. So, with a huge, huge airspace to defend, as well as potential missions like the RCAF has been engaged in since 9/11 possibly coming up still, the bottom of the barrel has been scratched and gouged deep already. Replacements are needed, and quickly. The current government has decreed that Canada will no longer be involved in foreign offensive military ops, and that the fighter the RCAF needs is only required to defend NORAD airspace. Obviously the F35 isn't optimized as an interceptor, which is what the mission calls for by this new "definition", so it's difficult to know what the future will bring.
