- When it comes to the Super Hornets, one needs to ask serious questions on the extent to which there really is an imminent capability gap – something seemingly refuted by the Commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), Lieutenant-General Michael Hood, at a Parliamentary committee earlier this year.
....If only an interim measure, we’d be wasting resources to fill a purported imminent capability gap that has yet to arise...[forcing the RCAF] ... to operate a mixed fleet, or alternatively have much less leeway to select a different platform as a permanent replacement for the CF-18. Either possibility is worrisome. A mixed-fleet is an expensive proposition, as noted by the National Fighter Procurement Secretariat’s Summary Report, while the latter possibility would represent a de facto end-run of the government’s own promise to pursue an open competition for the next generation fighter aircraft.
...this latest, apparent ‘leak’ about the Super Hornets... is rather puzzling, to say the least! Cabinet decisions do not usually leak out that easily, especially not ones that involve lots of money. So, one might be led to speculate it is a ‘leak’ from somewhere at the top (government) to test the waters. If so, it would seem that a pattern is emerging here, whereby important decisions might be shaped and coming out ahead of the [Defence Policy Review] and expected new Defence Policy....rather than through the systematic, consultative, and open process that the government announced earlier this year. ...One hopes such decisions would only be made upon the completion of these consultations when the actual DPR is being formulated.
