Quote:
Originally Posted by Wharn
Tell that to the Brazilian Air Force. They have a rather massive country to defend, and right now they're giving the Gripen very serious consideration. Mainly because it's reliable, cheap to buy and extremely cheap to maintain. The single engine design is a bit of an issue, but as J-P pointed out, it is still capable of supercruising and the range is not even that much worse than our existing CF-18 Hornets.
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I would go with whoever actually brings far more than 65 new and modern aircraft to the table, and agrees to have them built almost entirely in Canada. THAT would be some good industry benefit. The Gripen NG is a very capable aircraft and if they made an extremely amazing offer, I'd be hard-pressed to refuse it. However, I know that Dassault has also offered to have Rafales built almost entirely in Canada, and the Rafales have some semi-stealth features, as well as having two engines.
If I were in charge, something tells me that a proper competition and our sets of requirements would lead us to a choice of either the Super Hornet, or the Rafale.