The guy who makes up numbers wants sources? :lol: that's quite funny.
The Germans bought a bunch of Eurofighters about 5 years ago, look up how much they paid.
The Rafal cost the French around 70 million euros back in 2008, excluding development costs!
The Gripen is NOT competitive, not by a long shot. It's also 20 years old.. but I suppose you think it's prudent to replace our aging CF-18s with slightly less aged Gripens, to save 50%... gee I wonder where that would put us 10-15 years from now :lol:
The F/A-18E/F? Less expensive, but also LESS PLANE for your money. Smaller payload, smaller operational combat radius (a big one for Canada, as you may imagine), and most importantly, far far inferior electronics, radar, and avionics.
The F-35 has all the latest and greatest radar and avionics technology. It's also touted as having full 360 degree situational awareness (AN/AAQ-37) which can detect and track rockets upwards of 800 miles away. Will Saab lol build this into the Gripen if we ask? hahaha
But yeah, you obviously already knew this since you did all the procurement research ahead of our own specialists, and can say with absolute certainty that the F-35 is "overpriced" and a "boondoggle".
Reading. Do it.
f35: $145+mil usd/per (estimated cost to canada). factor in development costs, etc, and we're closer to $200mil usd/per
rafale: $80-90mil usd/per
typhoon: $141mil usd/per
gripen: $50mil usd/per
superhornet: $66mil usd/per
of course, you apparently know all of this already, since you've actually done the research, right? lol. still waiting on your sources.
the f35 cost is ESTIMATED, because by the time they get built and in service for canada, it'll be way higher than that.
do the grade two math if you can, and note how much more expensive the f35 already is. just wait till we have to replace them, maintain them, etc. that's when a multiplier effect will kick in. then again, with all of this "latest and greatest" toys comment, your arguments do have a grade school ring to them. . .
. . .as for the specialists. LAUGHABLE. harpo's cons only listened long enough to get the answers they wanted, and ignored the rest. keep reading son, there were/are plenty of specialists both in canada and abroad who think the f35 is the wrong plane for canada. not that you or harpo would bother listening, lol. . .
i repeat:
no due diligence
misleading canadians
committing to a money pit
writing a blank cheque
nothing you have written challenges these facts