What's Canada Buying? August 31, 2012

• F-35 Tug o’ War (1)  MORE on the incoming CDS….  “The appointment of a top air force officer who has publicly argued Canada requires a stealth warplane jet to match similar attack aircraft under development in China and Russia will have an “inevitable” effect on the growing debate over the government’s controversial plan to acquire a fleet of F-35 stealth fighter jets, the NDP opposition says.  The new chief of defence staff, general Thomas J. Lawson, advocated for a stealth fighter jet for Canada in an essay about the North American Aerospace Defence Command he wrote for an edition of the Canadian Military Journal earlier this summer.  Mr. Lawson, deputy commander of NORAD when Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) appointed him chief of defence staff on Monday, quoted testimony from air force commander lieutenant-general Andre Deschamps at a House of Commons committee in 2010 as he argued a stealth fighter is essential for the Canada-U.S. Norad to be able to deter potential attacks from China and Russia ….”  With all due respect to General Lawson or any CDS, the CDS can say/advise what he wants (and he should be listened to – not just heard – by the elected folks he advises), the buck stops here – or here if one is a cynic about such things.
• F-35 Tug o’ War (2)  “The federal government intends to continue with plans to acquire a fleet of F-35 stealth warplanes rather than look at other options to replace Canada’s aging fleet of fighter jets following a scathing report on the project from Auditor General Michael Ferguson last April, says a former assistant deputy minister about an email exchange between Public Works and The Hill Times.  In an email exchange with The Hill Times clarifying an independent review of the F-35 acquisition that Public Works plans to obtain, the department said the outside firm that will carry out the review will be tasked with ensuring only that all of the steps the government has taken since the July, 2010, Cabinet decision to buy the F-35s will be under scrutiny.  “This exercise will ensure that the steps taken since July 2010 in the acquisition process have been conducted in accordance with applicable government policies, procedures and regulations,” the department said in an email to The Hill Times late Tuesday night ….”  This is the same Alan Williams who was a far greater fan of the F-35 earlier on in the process when he actually WAS the ADM – note who signed this agreement waaaaaaaaay back in 2002.
• F-35 Tug o’ War (3a)  A bit of a buzz wordy update from south of the border  “Test pilots at Edwards AFB, California, are set to begin high angle-of-attack (AOA) flights and weapons separation testing on the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF).  So far this year, pilots at the isolated desert base have flown about 350 sorties, says Lt Col George Schwartz, director of the F-35 integrated test force and commander of the 461st Flight Test Squadron. Much of the activity has focused on high speed tests which have seen the F-35 being repeatedly pushed out to its maximum speed of Mach 1.6 and 700 knots calibrated airspeed-often fully laden with internal weapons.  Another ongoing theme for the Edwards test pilots is maturity testing for the software required for the F-35 training mission currently underway at Eglin AFB, Florida ….”
• F-35 Tug o’ War (3b)  On the other hand, an Aussie blogger’s less-than-half-full assessment
• Blogger/info-curator Mark Collins on “RCN (maybe) Wants a Big Honking (amphibious?) Ship”
• I don’t typically agree with ceasefire.ca on almost all fronts, but they’re not entirely without a point re:  how they’re viewing Canada’s sub fleet follies.
• Wanted:  someone to do research on why people remember some stuff more than other stuff - this from the Statement of Work here:  “…. To win the hearts and minds of a population, we need to design effective information campaigns.  We need to better understand why some ideas flourish and become widely transmitted in a population while others quickly perish after their creation ….”
  

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