{"id":731,"date":"2014-06-25T07:13:02","date_gmt":"2014-06-25T07:13:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freemasonrywatch.org\/blog\/?p=731"},"modified":"2014-06-25T07:13:02","modified_gmt":"2014-06-25T07:13:02","slug":"john-ivison-canadians-need-the-straight-goods-on-f-35-first-and-foremost-does-it-really-handle-like-a-flying-piano","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freemasonrywatch.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/25\/john-ivison-canadians-need-the-straight-goods-on-f-35-first-and-foremost-does-it-really-handle-like-a-flying-piano\/","title":{"rendered":"John Ivison: Canadians need the straight goods on F-35. First and foremost: Does it really handle like a \u2018flying piano\u2019?"},"content":{"rendered":"

National Post<\/a><\/p>\n

John Ivison: Canadians need the straight goods on F-35. First and foremost: Does it really handle like a \u2018flying piano\u2019?<\/p>\n

April 30, 2012<\/p>\n

John Ivison
\n\"f-35
\nPotentially as damaging as the cost over-runs are the claims made by critics like military analyst Winslow Wheeler that the F-35 is a \u201cvirtual flying piano\u201d that lacks agility and is grounded far too often for maintenance.<\/p>\n

The day the Auditor-General\u2019s damning report on the F-35 fighter jets landed, the Harper government attempted to contain the damage by announcing the creation of a new \u201cF-35 Secretariat\u201d to oversee the process to replace Canada\u2019s aging CF-18 fleet.<\/p>\n

The government committed itself to \u201ccontinue evaluating options\u201d on the CF-18 replacement, but the very name of the new office suggested, in reality, Canadians could have any jet they wanted, as long as it looked like the F-35.<\/p>\n

But it is the F-35 Secretariat no longer.<\/p>\n

Marc Garneau, the Liberal MP, asked in Question Period if the change of name to the \u201cNew Fighter Aircraft Secretariat\u201d was indicative of a shift in policy. He didn\u2019t get much of an answer but government sources confirmed the name has indeed been changed, to avoid giving the impression that the outcome is pre-determined. Asked if that meant a competition for a new jet is likely, the senior Conservative said: \u201cWe haven\u2019t closed that door.\u201d<\/p>\n

On first blush, it looks very much as if the government is preparing to back away from the F-35. The whole saga has taken a political toll on the Tories, as the costs for the 30-year life-cycle of the jets appear to be close to double the $16-billion they have claimed.<\/p>\n

The F-35 took another hit this week with a scathing article \u2013 \u201cThe Jet that Ate the Pentagon\u201d \u2014 in the highly regarded Foreign Policy magazine. It suggested the plane is \u201csimply unaffordable, behind schedule\u201d and a huge disappointment in terms of performance. \u201cThe F-35 is an unaffordable mediocrity, and the program will not be fixed by any combination of hardware tweaks or cost-control projects. There is only one thing to do with the F-35: Junk it. America\u2019s air force deserves a much better aircraft and the taxpayers deserve a much cheaper one,\u201d wrote Winslow Wheeler, a veteran military analyst.<\/p>\n

Article Continues<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"Alison
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