Jet Fighter Math...
Judging from those ever comprehensive reports of our election, I will have to guess that Canadians have totally forgotten why we are having an election in the first place. Well, it was in fact that the Conservatives was found in contempt of parliament. Why? Well they seem to have this crazy idea that how they choose to spend public money should be kept confidential. This included an order of 65 F-35A jet fighters [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-35_Lightning_II].
As it turns out the price tag for these fighters is a whopping $9 billion, which is likely to balloon to $18billion by the time the order is fully paid for. [http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2010/07/16/canada-jets.html], about $277 million for each plane, or $524 for every Canadian (adult and child).
Before we go any further, I would like to point out that in my opinion having fighters to defend the sovereignty of our north is essential. But might it be better accomplished with a much more logical and economical solution than the F-35? Sure, after all we are talking replacing our aging CF-18s. So why not replace them with the updated F-18F super hornets? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F/A-18E/F_Super_Hornet] After all they share many parts and many features. This has many inherent savings: including no need to order duplicate spare parts, no need to completely retrain staff and pilots, no need to purchase new costly simulators, etc.
I personally am a bit too cynical to believe that the decision to buy the F-35A was one based solely on the needs of our military. There is one whopping flaw with the F-35A. It has a sucky range. (For those who don’t know that is the distance the aircraft can travel before refueling.) The F-35A has a range of 2220km, while the old CF-18s has a range of 2340km. Even that is not enough for the vast expanses of the great white north. So our Canadian forces put a large fuel tank strapped to it’s belly. Of course you can do the same with the F-35A, but that totally kills it’s stealth capability which of course is the main selling point of the F-35A. I guess the F-35A is more sexy, if you are into that sort of thing... ;-)
So let’s pretend for a moment we mere Canadians can choose between the F35A or the F18F… What do we get? The cost per F-18F is about $55 million fly away price. Which is about right, since unlike the F35A, we won’t need a crap load of new accessories. Let’s face it, that how they get you. With unnecessary options and accessories… So it would cost $222 million more for each F35A and we get: Less range, less armament payload, higher maintenance costs… But in return we get stealth that won’t work because of that big external fuel tank…
Well let’s do some math for these fighters:
$221.9 million more for each fighter = $14.4 billion! => $420 per Canadian more...
Population of Waterloo region: 535,000 as of 2009. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_Municipality_of_Waterloo]
Doing the math: ~$225 million
Hmmm… what could the people of Waterloo region use $225 million for….
I will give you a hint: The province is willing to provide $300 million and the federal government is willing to provide $265 million of the $790 million needed. So we need another $225 million… [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_transit_in_Waterloo_Region]
$225 million??? Coincidence? Almost makes you believe in glitches in the Matrix... Okay maybe I did some funny math tweaking... lol...
Here's another weird coincidence (possibly with a bit of Alanis Morissette Irony), Waterloo region's population is just over 1/65th of the population of Canada. So one of those jets is ours... ;-) Think Harper would go for 64 F-35As and one F-18F with a transit system? :-D
