Who’d have thought that the Canadians would stop apologizing for being stuck in this confusing situation, and would start bossing around the face-eating leopards? Wow. Que les etrange temps roulent.
That’s 13th century anglo-norman French for “what the fuck?”
Yes, folks it’s your long-awaited posting of F-35 news! I know you’ve been wondering what’s up with the program. Well, it sounds like it may have just gotten shot in the face, by its tame leopards.
Canada Reconsidering $13.2 Billion F-35 Purchase Amid Growing Tensions With The U.S.
I am imagining Saab sales reps are hopping the fastest flights they can get to anywhere by the USA. There’s a lot going on here, which you’ll know if you’ve followed the F-35 program: international users of the aircraft have to be part of the F-35’s logistical program which, among other things, executes a maintenance schedule and parts inventory but also provides the US details of where any F-35s are deployed and where they have been flying. Now that the US has basically announced that it is comfortable with crapping in the hot tub, the other nations in the hot tub party have been backing away and are talking mostly to Saab. The reason Saab is going to make a murderin’ over this is because their jets are designed to do a good job at what modern multi-role aircraft are supposed to be good at: carrying bombs to hit insurgents, scaring people, making it expensive for Russia to invade you, flying low over suspicious ships, making slow-moving vehicles regret ever deploying on the battlefield, etc. The F-35 was intended to be a dominance/superiority platform capable of consuming all the resources of a nation’s air force while being able to fight any advanced enemy of which there is only one: the US.
If I were running Iran I’d make a serious enquiry about whether or not the US was willing to sell us some F-35s, then run off laughing after a couple months, or string it out as long as possible.
By the way, I don’t know if you heard, but Trump’s got the US at war, already. He’s had a massive erection over starting a war, and he’s finally got his chance. The US is now openly engaging in combat operations (air support) in Yemen. I think the idea is that they will no longer be pretending it’s just Saudis flying the F-16s. Note: Saudi has no F-35s. The Saudis apparently were trying to buy F-35s for a long time, but finally settled on 48 EuroFighter Typhoons. Although I wonder if Lockheed/Martin will be offering any tasty package deals, soon. Who knows what the US will be deploying to Yemen. It doesn’t matter, anyway, they’re just using it as an excuse to build and stock air bases in Iran’s back pocket.
The news comes just one day after Portugal announced it was abandoning its plans to purchase the F-35.
The Portuguese probably realized that they aren’t likely to get attacked by Russia, or China, and any other power will probably be better to negotiate with. There’s no need for uber-expensive F-35s intended to dominate a battlefield that does not exist. You don’t need ultra-expensive fighters to fly over ships full of suffering migrants and interdict pirates. In fact, that is starting to sink in. Meanwhile, Saab has been being extremely sensible about the packages they are offering, including the Gripen (everyone agrees it’s a damn fine jet) maintenance training and local assembly. So any country buying a Gripen doesn’t need to ship the thing back to the US every so often, where it is subject to the increasingly unstable politics of the emergent imperial power. [There is some other really crazy stuff about the US not allowing nations that are part of the F-35 program to test other aircraft, because: F-35]
The current administration’s fondness for showing that it’s not even a fair weather friend, is going to have consequences down the road. It will take a while, because the adults who deal with this stuff plan on a 4-10 year horizon.
Even the bland cheese-eating Swiss want off the F-35 train.
Pierce R. Butler@#1:
Even the bland cheese-eating Swiss want off the F-35 train
Once they realized that they are not going to be attacked, or try to conquer Europe, they realized they just need something workable.
Pretty sure the Saab sales reps are on a very important call with all of Europe and will have to get back to Canada shortly.
Meanwhile the Australian government still thinks we need US subs and our opposition leader thinks he can negotiate with Trump
With apologies for the unwarranted anthropomorphisation of nation states, there’s something grimly satisfying about the nation everyone has been appeasing due to its position as global economic hegemon becoming so ignorant of its own privilege that it starts rocking the boat, suddenly finding that said position was largely because it wasn’t worth arguing with.
People recently have been asking “can the EU defend itself without the US?” to which the answer must be “it depends”. The idea that the US has the EU beat in terms of resources and manpower though… I don’t think so. It’s interesting to speculate what an allied europe on a total war footing would look like, but the first step would have to be evicting several hundred US airbases.
There’S ALSO THIS (FROM bLUESKY):
“Canada is considering blocking US access to Pornhub, a Canadian site, as part of the trade war.
Every Republican puts on a brave face for the public.”
Some years ago, Norway was considering the Gripen as an alternative to the F-35. The US caught wind of this, and put pressure on Saab to back out; apparently the Gripen uses some vital US electronics. I don’t know if that is still a factor.
Yeah, I think the UK is the only client country which has a deal giving them full control over F-35 maintenance.
And more pessimistic people have been asking “Can the EU defend itself from the US?”