Gaming the CF-18 Fighter Replacement

This miscalculated decision to sidestep a formal competition initiated the politicization of the CF-18 replacement as the Conservatives made use of the proposed acquisition for partisan purposes. [...] With the government unable to control the building controversies, the opposition eagerly continued the politicization.4 Figure 1: Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Industry Minister Tony Clement walk past a mock-up of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter after announcing the government's plan to purchase 65 of the stealth jets in Ottawa on July 16, 2010. [...] Prior to that point, the Commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force was confident the CF-18s would meet operational needs until 2025, before the government “changed the policy with the number of aircraft I have to have”.9. [...] The evidence also points to the unsettling realization that the government was willing to use the fighter force as the sacrificial lamb in the Bombardier/Boeing dispute and intended to draw upon the fiscal framework of the permanent replacement for the CF-18s to support this veiled intercession.13 Despite all the evidence against the Super Hornet purchase, it was the pawn that the government offer [...] Whether one rationalizes it as terminological Gaming the CF-18 Fighter Procurement: The Politicizing of a Military Procurement Page 3 by Alan Stephenson December 2017 Gaming the CF-18 Fighter Replacement: The Politicizing of a Military Procurement inexactitudes, or as my former elementary school teacher would say, “bold-faced lies”, the evidence leads to the conclusion that the government has been