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Australia operates the Leopard 1 in an engineering config, similar to Canada's Badger vehicle. Also, the Royal Marines operate the Hippo, which is based on Leopard 1 chassis.

Super Hornets are probally easier to sell to the Canadian public. Any good government can sell this as replacement airframes for the current Hornet fleet, as the name is similar and externally, they do look a bit similar, even though they are totally different aircraft. The main issue with F-35...

We are also better off getting the newer Airbus A330 as well... they even have a tanker version, and a cargo version is apparantly in the works. Bigger, more capable, and newer than a A310. Hawker: Air Transat uses the Airbus A310, but they aren't letting them go yet. However, Air Canada does...

Blame General Maxwell Taylor of the US Army for being so dead set against the lighter round. It was Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, who discovered that the testers that were testing the M-14 vs. the AR-15 were biased towards the M-14, and ordered firstly a halt to M-14 production, and a...

It appears to be somewhat of a methodology when it comes to procurement for the CF: wait until the vehicle rusts out and is totally obsolete before purchasing the latest gear. Occasionally, you get the purchase of equipment that in between the rust out and renewal cycle, but that is rare. A...

The Chinese, when they purchased their first batch of 38 brand new Sukhoi SU-30MKK in 1999, got their's for about $2 billion US.

To cplcaldwell: 1. Russian engines are not as reliable and dependable as Western engines. They also use more fuel than comparable Western designs, and weight more. Also, Russian engines don't last as long as Western ones, usually 1/3 of a Western engine. For example, the mean time between...

Just crudely designed and built. They aren't Tomahawk cruise missiles you know. Point in the general direction of the enemy and fire.

The Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies released another commentary on Darfur: http://www.ciss.ca/Comment_Darfur.htm CISS made a warning about any possible deployment to Darfur:

We are going to be talking about a BIG ship if it has to carry and operate a significant number of Chinook's... most ships of the LHD size can only operate a handful, as simply put it, a Chinook is not designed for shipboard operations (lacks folding rotor blades). I read  about the story of a...

Couple of other solutions other than Enforcer and San Antonio that are around the same size: France's Nouveaux Transports de Chalands de Débarquement (NTCD) http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/europe/mistral.htm Technical description: South Korea's LP-X Dokdo (Landing Platform...

Most boom systems have the ability to refuel a probed aircraft. It also makes our tankers more useful to the Americans, as the USAF primarily uses boom refueling. It is more expensive for us to develop, build, and install a boom system for the C-17, as we are the only ones who are installing...

C-17 wasn't designed for probe and drogue. I heard that early on, when the C-17 was being developed, an offer was made to the Brits in form of a C-17K, where a probe would be installed from the get go, and the engines would be swapped for the equivalant Rolls Royce engines (obviously, that...

The thing is that if you are able to refuel a transport while still in the air, you can technically carry more cargo than if you didn't as you come up against the maximum take off weight of the aircraft (airframe plus fuel and cargo), as the airplane has only enough fuel to get off the ground...

We can take care of some of those problems by fitting Western avionics to the airplanes. India is a good example, as they operate both Eastern bloc and Western aircraft in their military, and with their Sukhoi fighters, they have a mix of Russian (radar mainly), French, and Israeli avionics.

A few navies use helicopters as a AWAC platform for their carriers. The Russians and the Indians use the Kamov Ka-31 Helix, the Royal Navy and their Sea King AEW helos come to mind as solutions. The RN is however looking to replace their Sea King AEW's with either a EH-101 Merlin derivative or a...

I just thought of something if we do buy C-17's: We can't refuel them in the air with our CC-150 Polaris tankers. C-17's use the boom and receptacle method of refueling, while the rest of the CF uses probe and drogue. Looks like we either have to stop somewhere for fuel for long distance flights...

I am hearing rumors that Viking Air out of Sydney, BC, will be restarting Twotter production again soon.

I like what the Dutch have done, which is to reserve the right to inspect any prisoners they hand over to the Afghanis. Perhaps we should add that clause into our agreement, if it isn't there already, and exercise that right fully.

Russian turbine engines don't tend to last as long as Western engines in the same thrust class. They also tend to weight slightly more than Western engines in the same thrust class. The Russians are extremely good at one thing: anything dealing with titanium. They have the best metalurgy and and...