this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2025
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Canada needs to stop buying the F35s and buy French Rafales. (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 3 months ago by thisorthatorwhatever@lemmy.world to c/canadapolitics@lemmy.world
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[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 15 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Or Swedish Gripens.

[–] kbal@fedia.io 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Or a bunch of cheap drones and portable anti-air defence systems.

[–] thisorthatorwhatever@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

Agreed. All combat books have been rewritten after Ukraine. Whatever contracts we had, are obsolete already. Factories of small hand held missiles. Crazy drones of all variants from small pocket sized ones to ones that can go at mach 3 or more.

[–] Peppycito@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 months ago

We need a Royal Commission to determine the appropriate plane.

/s

[–] bluGill@fedia.io 10 points 3 months ago

The F35 is a 5th generation fighter. Rafale is 4th (maybe 4.5). They are not suitable for the same roles. Canada needs to join with Japan or someone else making a 5th generation fighter if they are worried.

[–] humanspiral@lemmy.ca 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Definitely needs to cancel F35 purchases/payments. It is a dogshit plane. If they restore F35 contract after tariffs/war threats on Canada are removed, then must have Israel version that is immune to being bricked by US. Any defense spending by Canada has to be on equipment that can be used to defend Canada from US. Boeing civilian plane contracts need to be cancelled too.

An advantage of Rafale is that it is cheaper in addition to better uptime rates. Russia and Israel have had shy use of 5th gen aircraft mostly due to high cost and embarrassment of a failure.

Rafale and Airbus purchases would be part of a trade deal with Canadian exports. But we should also shop for trade deals with exchange for Chinese aircraft. More important than making new contracts is cancelling existing US ones.