LM did not launched stealthy version of 16???
Too small! Real stealth, the all aspects kind used in so-called US 5th requires broader shapes than
the conventional aircraft design, more material per linear foot of jet.
The added weight of new equipment would disfigure the jet indicating the necessity for a new product.
Think of the rear stab eq. case on a F-16A slender based but with a bulbous fat azz section.
By the C, that fin base was more extensive and more blocky, hiding that in its elongated form.
Then came the dorsal fin of the Block 50s and beyond, so ungainly that it barely matters if you add
the equally homely conformal tanks.
What was one of the most elegant designs in aviation history is laden with ugly and looks like a stud
going to the prom with 3 fat girls.
Saying this aesthetically as Marcel Dassault's famous line : Ce qui est beau vole bien …
What's pretty flies well - reveals the weight to shape ratio minimum involved in real stealth.
For that reason, at the level of slender jets, electronics are the best stealth option and it so happens
that it's exactly what is in that widening foot of vertical stabilizer / dorsal fin / hump.
*
The upper limit on the Falcon has been reached; it's not an Eagle?
* Apart from APU.
Why these restriction on Canada?
Not on Canada! Americans are an Island-Nation people. Upon the shock of 9-11, they closed up
quicker than an oyster. The restrictions apply to all, so either also to friends or they have none.
It actually goes reverse :
special favors were negative as in rules for those not our friends.
Why do the Canadian Military needs sophiscated fighters like F-35 or F-22?
They don't, that's the whole point. Canada needs a dual engined NATO interoperable fighter with long legs.
Any good up-to-date one will do.
Would be stupid if Canada opened a new competition which the F-35 would inevitably win, and would be supremely stupid if Canada tried to exclude it (and illegal under Canadaian law).
Don't throw supreme stupidity at people like that; it splatters back.
The present price of the F-35 is not variable as Canada had decided on a fixed package deal.
The Liberals will start with the present amount and open a competition much below that.
The possible candidates are then the F-18 EF +_ Growlers, the F-15 SE for the Great White North
coverage ability or Rafale.
The Typhoon should compete but is hindered somewhat by the fact that only the Brits are serious in
developing it to its full potential, which in a consortium set-up really matters especially for exports.
No single engine jet can compete. They won't win. MilAvia history teaches us that Canada choose the
CF_18 over the Mirage 2000 despite test pilots loving flying the latter ( Canada has a mud-flyer base )
due to fear of engine problems
or of a pilot forced to walk back 2000 miles to base cause a goose wanted a hot hug.
( The excuse at the time was delivery schedule but in the know folks heard a General comment )
You'd have a better chance with the brilliant MiG-31 and factual MiG-35 suggestions.
Now Trudeau has upheld his first promise of halting the strikes in the M_E within hours of the election.
Chances are he will hold the fighter one too. And mind you, he also said he would fix the sea-snake saga
of the Surface Combatant program to replenish the Royal Canadian Navy.
That program is navigating so far about like those subs bought a while back : on fire and/or sinking.
There's a proposal to adapt a used tanker or cargo as temporary fleet logistics vessel since the real one
broke down roughly a year ago on its way to an exercise with friends in the low western Pacific, having
to take refuge in Hawaii.
HMCS PROTECTEUR - Military Ops: current position and details | MMSI 316146000, Callsign CYTV | Registered in Canada - AIS Marine Traffic
Read this excellent primer on Canada and the seas at war :
The sinking of the Canadian Navy - Macleans.ca
So forget the conditional mates, there will be a fighter competition …
for the US products to lose for G-P reasons ... save the one that already did.
Tay.