It sounds like maybe air-defense is less about “defending” any particular asset (e.g. keeping Canadian tanks safe from enemy bombs - which might be a battle we simply cannot win) than making air-superiority very expensive?
Expensive, risky and maybe not totally complete. For example, they might no longer have the option of flying a helicopter over an urban area on a clear day.
Completely stopping the Americans from flying at all seems impossible without a WWIII kind of response from allies, yes. IIRC they have both the largest and second largest air forces (because of the navy).
'cause that’s what I envision, when we buy military hardware…like…the US (or Russia, or China) could just blast all our expensive toys to bits before we get to use them.
Survivability is all down to how well the expensive things are hidden, which is itself partly down to moving them around a lot (like with a fast jet). In another era of warfare making them indestructible would have been an option, but not so much now.
At the other end of the cost curve, there’s at least minimal efforts to get our own drone capabilities going.
But you’re saying [Gripens] actually serve a different role strategically
Extremely different. Honestly that they both get called “fighters” is down to history. Like sure, they both turn fast, and have a similar-ish shape to accomplish that, but it means little from a strategic perspective. (At an individual-ish aka tactical level, that’s still good for dodging certain kinds of threats)
It’s made out of basic, off-the-shelf kinds of parts, and it literally does just need the pilot, a dirt runway and six mostly-untrained conscripts that can follow orders and carry heavy things in order to operate. The downside is that it has no stealth whatsoever. To be survivable, it would have to take off, do whatever of mission, land, and be towed away before the enemy can respond. Maybe that’s doable, maybe not. It’s untested.
We’ll see what the government decides. Getting the F-35’s we’ve already bought and nothing else would be one option, and then the money could go elsewhere.
I really appreciate your insights.
You’re welcome!
Since you’re interested, there’s CanadaBuys for an unskewed view of what tenders are out there, and you can filter for the DND. There’s also Perun on YouTube, which comes recommended for (global) military news and analysis in granular detail.
Expensive, risky and maybe not totally complete. For example, they might no longer have the option of flying a helicopter over an urban area on a clear day.
Completely stopping the Americans from flying at all seems impossible without a WWIII kind of response from allies, yes. IIRC they have both the largest and second largest air forces (because of the navy).
Survivability is all down to how well the expensive things are hidden, which is itself partly down to moving them around a lot (like with a fast jet). In another era of warfare making them indestructible would have been an option, but not so much now.
At the other end of the cost curve, there’s at least minimal efforts to get our own drone capabilities going.
Extremely different. Honestly that they both get called “fighters” is down to history. Like sure, they both turn fast, and have a similar-ish shape to accomplish that, but it means little from a strategic perspective. (At an individual-ish aka tactical level, that’s still good for dodging certain kinds of threats)
It’s made out of basic, off-the-shelf kinds of parts, and it literally does just need the pilot, a dirt runway and six mostly-untrained conscripts that can follow orders and carry heavy things in order to operate. The downside is that it has no stealth whatsoever. To be survivable, it would have to take off, do whatever of mission, land, and be towed away before the enemy can respond. Maybe that’s doable, maybe not. It’s untested.
We’ll see what the government decides. Getting the F-35’s we’ve already bought and nothing else would be one option, and then the money could go elsewhere.
You’re welcome!
Since you’re interested, there’s CanadaBuys for an unskewed view of what tenders are out there, and you can filter for the DND. There’s also Perun on YouTube, which comes recommended for (global) military news and analysis in granular detail.