One of the first things Prime Minister Carney did upon being elected was to do a reassessment of all critical deals that were left on the table by the previous government.
And at the top of the list was Canada’s acquisition of new fighter aircraft fleet to replace our aged fleet of F-18s. We have to admit that for years Canada has been negligent when it comes to our own defence. So, for years and Prime Ministers past we’ve trusted America and when it comes to military equipment we have always bought exclusively from America manufacturers.
When Prime Minister Carney stepped up Canada had already paid for a dozen or so F-35s and agreed to buy another 70 or so for Billions of US dollars.
These very expensive flying computers were sold to us as “Stealth” meaning they were to be “invisible“. The F-35 have never been delivered and the finished cost has escalated inexcusably! The F-35 has proven ill-equipped for arctic conditions and they require specialized hangers and landing and take-off strips, and require extensive downtime between sorties for a large contingency of mechanics and crew. The projected maintenance costs to operate a fleet of F-35s have also exploded along with the cost! I’ve said this “is a dog that just don’t hunt“!
So, today my artificial intelligence sources have just reported a true paradigm shift of epic proportions! It is a moment where modern aerial combat was flipped on its head and served up the final nail in the F-35/Canada deal, in just under 3 seconds! You got it right! under 3 seconds in real time!
For decades the global defence community has operated under a very specific, incredibly expensive belief system being sold by America (who was supplying most military materials for huge profits). The entire Western Alliance have paid trillions betting on American F-35’s stealth aircraft.
We bought into the promise that “if the enemy can’t see you on their radar screens, they can’t kill you“. This is what is called “a cloak of invincibility” or what I call “flawed logic“.
But what just happened during a very routine NATO exercise in the Baltic airspace has profoundly, and terrifyingly shattered that illusion completely. This is a tail of how a Swedish Grippen, a jet that costs just a fraction of the price of each F35, actually completely outmaneuvered and locked onto the pride of the American military industrial complex (F-35).
The incident proved a masterclass in human ingenuity, psychological warfare and stategic adaptability all rolled into one! I want you to picture the theatre of operations, the Baltic Sea, which is notoriously complex geopolitical chessboard that is closely monitored at all times by Russian radar installations just on the other side of the water.
Multiple allied aircraft were in formation, running through what should have been standard intercept maneuvers, radar tracking drills, and combat simulations. The airspace was dominated by the US Airforce deploying their crown jewel, the F-35, a flying computer designed from the ground up to be a digital ghost. Its radar cross-section is theoretically so minuscule that it is supposed to appear as nothing more than a golf ball or a small bird on enemy screens, effectively “granting the pilot total situational dominance before the adversary even knows they are in the same postal code“.
And, lo and behold, right there in the middle of this high-tech symphony was the Swedish Grippen. Granted, from a purely financial and superficial standpoint, the Grippen does not belong in the same heavyweight bout as the F-35.
The Grippen is smaller and does not possess the futuristic angular radar absorbing exterior of the F-35. With the Russian bear right next door as their neighbour Saab could never afford to play the game of brute force. Instead their engineers created the Grippen with a philosophy of supreme agility, relentless electronic warfare capabilities, and an active electronically scanned array or ASA radar system which is said to be “nothing short of a technological marvel“, prioritizing brains over brawn, electronic counter measures over physical stealth, and pilot adaptability over expensive rigid complexity.
And then the unexpected happened! During a mock intercept phase of the exercise, the Griffin pilot executed a maneuver known in the most elite aviation circles as a “Snap Lock“! It is difficult to appreciate the sheer audacity and technical brilliance of the maneuver!
A snap lock is a lightning fast radar and missile targeting sequence that requires perfect synchronization between the pilot’s situational awareness and the aircrafts’s onboard processing power. It is “a calculated aggressive and incredibly precise action designed to catch an adversary in that microscopic window of vulnerability before their automated defence systems can react and compensate in under 3 seconds” . . . 3 seconds! Less time than it takes to take a sip of coffee.
The onboard threat warning systems of the F-35 began screaming! The pilot of the most advanced, supposedly untouchable stealth fighter on the entire planet received a “Lock Warning”! The Grippen had found the ghost! It had painted the F-35 with a perfect targeting solution.
On paper according to every mathematical model, every classified simulation, and every glossy brochure handed out by American defence contractors, this was “an absolute impossibility“! The stealth geometry of the F-35 is specifically designed to “scatter and absorb radar waves, rendering traditional targeting methods obsolete” or so the “Snake Oil Salesman’s pitch goes“.
Yet, here we have hard copy proof that the Grippen’s advanced AISA radar, working in flawless harmony with a bespoke suite of electronic warfare systems, managed to slice right through that multi-billion dollar cloak! The Swedish pilot demonstrated in real time an incredible level of split-second decision making, exploited a momentary fleeting weakness in the F-35’s flight profile, an angle of bank, a specific atmospheric anomaly, a brief emission of electromagnetic energy and slammed the trap shut.
It is critical to emphasize that this was not a fluke. This was not a lucky shot in the dark. Nor was it a glitch in the America software. It was the result of a deliberate, highly calculated intersection of technology, timing, and tactics. The Grippen pilots stayed absolutely ice cold breaking formation and fading back into the cloud cover.
When the telemetry and the radar logs were downloaded the data told a story that left seasoned military analysts completely speechless.
There it was, an undeniable cold, hard digital proof, a perfect lethal targeting solution acquired against the absolute pinnacle of stealth technology by an aircraft costing less that a third of its price.
For decades the entire US doctrine of air superiority has rested on a foundation of absolute confidence (this is a fundamental difference between Canadians and Americans . . . we Canadians don’t “oversell” or “con” people into buying from us).
Here you have a clear demonstration that a smaller, heavily digitized electronically aggressive fighter could not only survive against F-35’s, but could actually hunt and target the F-35.
What the Grippen demonstrated over the Baltic Sea is the ultimate triumph of human adaptability and cognitive flexibility over rigid monolithic reliance on a single technological advantage. The west had become mesmerized by America’s promoted concept of “stealth” and, as usual had oversold it to their gullible neighbour up north along with a bunch of other countries.
The sexiness of the stealth pitch ignored a fundamental law of military doctrine: “for every shield ever forged, someone somewhere is figuring out how to build a better spear“.
Saab did not ask “how to build a better stealth fighter“. Saab asked “how to see through the stealth that already existed” and realized that in the modern battle space the electromagnetic spectrum is the true high ground. By watering electronic counter counter measures and developing radar modes specifically tailored to seek out the faint anomalies created by stealth aircraft, they effetely peeled the playing field.
They actually proved that raw innovation, focused engineering, and brilliant tactical execution can absolutely rival sheer overwhelming spending power.
The Baltic Sea incident stripped away any illusions of invulnerability of stealth. So, my question is why would Canada want these expensive F-35s at all? And, yes I understand that America is presently black-mailing us into sticking with the F-35s but all the negatives that I shared about on them, coupled with the undisclosed but suspected “kill switch” associated with the F-35 it is literally a no-brainer to shed them all together. No go for a mixed fleet . . . kill the deal all together and my suspicions are that Prime Minister Carney is not unaware of this superior outcome.
And yes, it certainly will lead to another fight with America but we are going to end up there anyway and I believe we have very valid and strong case. I say let’s sue America and the manufacturer for their collective failure to deliver the product that they represented on time and/or budget (which has gone sky high). The entire deal was entered into based on “Stealth” and their aircraft has just proven unstealth worthy!
Take the cost over-runs, failed delivery schedule, inoperability in cold weather, and now the F-35’s lack of stealth and what have you got? A pretty solid legal case in my estimate and I am confident that Prime Minister Carney has factored this kind of thinking in his strategic alternatives thinking.
Any way we turn we’re going to be in a fight with America and it will cost so let’s put our money where it is best served and that would be in suing for the return of the millions that we’ve advanced and exiting the deal all together. This to be executed in the waining hours of negotiations once America realizes that its future rests with Canada.
Prime Minister Carney said it all when he said “Canada can make America Great Again“.
