Renting works fine for golf junkets, not for combat operations.
Considering we have several aircraft sitting on the tarmac purely for the purpose of ferrying ministers around, and have to rent aircraft to get troops around, the fat and the muscle seem pretty obvious.
If we need to rent, a LearJet for Jean and Company can‘t be that much.
However, there is a middle grpound betwen buyoing and renting. The UK recently began leasing several C-17‘s, pehaps this is something we can look into.
Also, I think it would be a good investment. The Hercs are certainly busy enough, and I don‘t see how having a couple more heavy-lift planes could be a bad thing in the long run.
I‘m more than willing to fire 30 generals and admirals to pay for it.
Publicly admitting that we rely on renting foreign aircraft to conduct combat operations is the biggest strike to soverignty I‘ve ever seen. We might as well start giving our defense budget directly to the Pentagon.
What the PPCLI has been doing these past weeks has made me so proud - and now Jean brings it all back to reality. Thank-you, Jean, I was almost beginning to think we had a kick-*** , high-speed, professional, respected and deadly military.