More Essays on the F-35 project.

This aircraft is right for Canada for many reasons:
It is gen 5.  That is a real designation, not a selling pitch.
It has a flight profile of a speeding soft ball going mach 1.4.  The F-22 is better, (a speeding marble) but is unavailable to anyone but the US.  Production has ceased.
The Pak-FA, and the Mig 35 are the Russian answer to the threat of gen 5.  First test flight was 1 year ago.  3 exist, only 1 flies.  We are 5-10 years ahead technologically.
China just unveiled a stealth plane.  We have little information on its capabilities.  It is probably the true threat.  Since China could easily ramp up production and produce these very cheaply.  65 planes would never hold their own against a Chinese Airforce of 1000s of planes.   Nato is planning on producing 3300.  Will it be enough?
I don't know.  It would take a vivid imagination to see Canada buying a Russian or Chinese plane.  Impossible so long as we are part of NATO.
The Lockheed F-35 was chosen in a competition that ended in 1996.  Everyone is not happy with the price increases.  However, the F-22, that the allies drool over, costs twice as much as the now inflated price of the F-35.
In a recent war game all our F18s were wiped out facing F35s and 22s.  We didn't get a shot off.  We never saw them.  We lost 100%.  That's what stealth does.  Technically our 30 year old F-18s fly faster, higher, further (only in cruise mode--tactically, it is less that the F-35 in terms of range)
But that is not what will win the next war.
To buy the newer F-18s would be stop-gap at best if you stretch it, because they will just as easily be shot down as our current ones.  That would be the real waste of taxpayer money.  This is the same with the Eurofighter and Gripen.  These planes are 4-4.5 gen at best at costs close to what we are paying for the F-35.
To make a modern fighter takes decades and hundreds of billions of dollars.  We have (and the Liberals first signed us on to this) agreed to cooperate on the design and building of this plane with our allies.  The costs are to be borne by all of us.  There is no way Canada would have a chance at this plane otherwise.
To think about anything else is akin to strapping your seat to a Sopwith--a no worse option than driving our existing planes into the ground.  They already are starting to fall from the sky.
When you want to go buy a Chev, or a Dodge you go down to the dealer, shop around a few dealerships to get the best price.  But if you want a Lamborghini, they tell you what it will cost, and after you pay for most of it you are on a 6 month waiting list for your car to be built.
Canadians have been led by the Liberals and NDP to think Chev, when we have been going after Lamborghini.
These are the reasons I am convinced we are making the right move.