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Aussie Hornets ?


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The never ending government problem of equipping our Air Force with the necessary aircraft to conduct missions at home and abroad. I’m sure these previously owned F-18’s still have some life left in them but according to the news report they will only be flown an average of 160 hrs per year. That seems like a lot of down time.

Another perhaps more serious issue is the lack of interest in becoming a pilot in the RCAF. 

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/nationalpost.com/news/canada/budget-officer-says-used-australian-fighter-jets-will-cost-canada-over-1-billion-far-more-than-dnd-claimed/amp

4D099EBA-FFC4-4815-AF3D-B20034654AAD.jpeg

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Looking at the mismatched panel colours makes me wonder, if one were selling used aircraft to a country with a penchant for buying played out used equipment (submarines) and maybe a bit slow on the buyer beware front,  how tempting would it be to swap out low time components and swap in high time stuff?

Maybe just a cynical moment but I am standing by for the 'unexpected maintenance and repair' expense with this latest purchase.

Vs

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1 hour ago, Vsplat said:

Looking at the mismatched panel colours makes me wonder, if one were selling used aircraft to a country with a penchant for buying played out used equipment (submarines) and maybe a bit slow on the buyer beware front,  how tempting would it be to swap out low time components and swap in high time stuff?

Maybe just a cynical moment but I am standing by for the 'unexpected maintenance and repair' expense with this latest purchase.

Vs

Hopefully better than WS’s ex-Qantas 767’s. 

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16 minutes ago, Fido said:

Has this Trudeau government done anything right?

They are just keeping true to their purchasing history of going for bargains.

Liberals to spend nearly $2.5-billion to keep used subs sailing past 2030

 Published June 15, 2017Updated June 15, 2017

The Trudeau government is planning to spend billions more on the navy's four wayward submarines to keep them operating into the 2030s.

The plan to extend the lives of the troubled vessels is included in the Liberals' new defence policy and comes following calls from senior naval officers to save the controversial ships from the scrap heap.

The actual price of the plan was not revealed in the policy document, which was released to much fanfare last week, and National Defence refused to provide a price tag following multiple requests.

That is despite assertions from the Liberal government that the defence policy was fully costed and following promises of full transparency when it came to the overall plan.

"Detailed costing will be provided in the Defence Investment Plan to be published in due course," National Defence spokesman Daniel Le Bouthillier said in an e-mail.

Defence sources, however, have told The Canadian Press that keeping the submarines in the water for another decade will cost upwards of $2.5-billion.

Without upgrades, the first of the submarines will reach the end of its life in 2022, according to documents obtained last year through Access to Information, with the last retired in 2027.

Some have questioned the wisdom of spending more money on the four vessels, which have been plagued with problems since Canada bought them used from Britain in 1998.

While the Chretien government said at the time that it was getting a bargain by paying only $750-million, the ships have required constant repairs and upgrades just to make them seaworthy for a limited time.

And while a number of experts have called for Canada look to purchase new submarines, rather than upgrading the ones it has, others have said the country doesn't need such expensive vessels.

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10 hours ago, blues deville said:

The never ending government problem of equipping our Air Force with the necessary aircraft to conduct missions at home and abroad. I’m sure these previously owned F-18’s still have some life left in them but according to the news report they will only be flown an average of 160 hrs per year. That seems like a lot of down time.

Another perhaps more serious issue is the lack of interest in becoming a pilot in the RCAF. 

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/nationalpost.com/news/canada/budget-officer-says-used-australian-fighter-jets-will-cost-canada-over-1-billion-far-more-than-dnd-claimed/amp

4D099EBA-FFC4-4815-AF3D-B20034654AAD.jpeg

I don’t see anything in that story regarding how many hours they will fly per month?

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15 hours ago, Vsplat said:

Looking at the mismatched panel colours makes me wonder, if one were selling used aircraft to a country with a penchant for buying played out used equipment (submarines) and maybe a bit slow on the buyer beware front,  how tempting would it be to swap out low time components and swap in high time stuff?

Maybe just a cynical moment but I am standing by for the 'unexpected maintenance and repair' expense with this latest purchase.

Vs

Umm, not sure if that’s an accurate representation of a potential future issue...

4F93DC2E-549A-4FFC-8EB8-EEA2307B6228.jpeg

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9 hours ago, conehead said:

I don’t see anything in that story regarding how many hours they will fly per month?

Sorry. That information was from another news report. Here is part of it. 

Each had averaged 6,000 flying hours in RAAF service. Once incorporated into the RCAF fleet, each is expected to accumulate approximately 160 flying hours annually, in line with the legacy Hornets. They would be phased out of RCAF operations in 2032-2033, affording some operational overlap with their eventual replacements

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28 minutes ago, conehead said:

So that’s in line with our current utilization...

C3 once received some kind of award for the highest daily utilization on 757’s of 15 hrs. a day which is roughly 5000 hrs. per year. I know fighter pilots generally don’t accumulate a lot of time compared to other operations but the planned 160 per F18 airframe per year doesn’t seem like much air time for the pilots. 

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No, you’re right, it’s not much flying time.  This is a big reason the RCAF can’t retain pilots.  The guys just want to fly.  Really can’t blame them, and in the big scheme of things I personally don’t foresee a very rosy future for the Canadian Air Force.

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