Well if it was up to Elon Musk the giants of LocMart, RTX, Boeing etc would be dismantled and gutted, so I suspect they are carefully looking for options to ensure their continued successes.
LMCO is looking for billions of revenue, not some Chapter 11 ‘informed’ good ideas…
Even if you did eventually get a second fleet, you’re going to be out of Hornets long before you get all your F-35’s. How long do you think that would take?
One can’t simply Executive Order things, especially things like that mainly because the fact that it could lead to a challenge to the Executive Order in court. Executive Orders are very flimsy given they have no constitutional backing, try to ram something like that against a corporation that has a healthy stable of attorneys, and you may have a very bad day from a fairly strict constitutionally based USSC.LockMart is terrified we'll order 50-60 and then sign up for one of the European programs. And if that becomes a trend with more than Canada, the base over which they're amortizing all the development costs of their Block Upgrades gets smaller than anticipated. This makes unit costs go up. Which means less orders, even at home, which makes unit costs go up, which means less orders....
Block IV was estimated to be over $10B. Now clocking in at $16.5B. Imagine amortizing that with even a 10% order cut.
F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: More Actions Needed to Explain Cost Growth and Support Engine Modernization Decision
DOD's effort to modernize its F-35 aircraft continues to face challenges that we identified in our prior work. We testified that: The program's cost...www.gao.gov
As far as Canada goes, how does LockMart plan to offer any guarantees when Trump won't even honour the very trade deal he signed in his first term? What's stopping him from signing an Executive Order demanding that those jobs get repatriated? Too much of a trust deficit with the US, for the foreseeable future.
My question isn’t of foreign industry, but the time for the RCAF and GoC to get a requirement staffed, and contract implemented, as well as any legal challenges from Bombardier with their new fighter concept rendering
I don’t think ytz is following the efforts that many US Defense Contractors are making with their senators and congressional representatives, both directly and via lobbyists.
I hear tellMy question isn’t of foreign industry, but the time for the RCAF and GoC to get a requirement staffed, and contract implemented, as well as any legal challenges from Bombardier with their new fighter concept rendering
it can move very quickly when it wants to.
I’d say the C-17 and Hook programs aren’t a good example for two reasons.I hear tell
So in France pro-Russia Marine Le Pen is currently leading poles for the 2027 presidential elections. So if she wins the Presidency and her National Rally party wins a plurality in the National Assembly then do we end up in the same situation with the Rafale as we are now with the F-35?
I'd argue back in the earlier NORAD days, yes we were, since the plans were to intercept and destroy incoming bombers in northern Canadian airspace by nuking the formations with Bomarcs, Genies and Falcons...and hopefully only the Inuit would be living "The Chrysalids".
Compare Canada's trade with France vs our trade with the United States
To be blunt....yes. Let's be honest, should we expect ANY foreign nation to view us in any way other than through the prism of their own national interest? Did the fact that the Fulda Gap was viewed as a "speed bump" to the Red Army make West Germany any less of a sovereign state? I'm sure the Germans were quite happy to have the US invested in their defence during the Cold War even if it was in their own self interest.
And it would be good business to get onboard with their growing defence sector where we can actually fit in as a medium-sized player. We'll only ever get table scraps from the Americans. And now they have some humiliation kink they need exercised before those deals.
