Working Towards F-22s for the Canadian Air Force

As a longtime advocate for Canada’s acquisition of the F-22 Raptor, I fine it disappointing to see little real progress being made towards a more mature view of Canada’s national defense policies.

Indeed, we appear to going backwards, thereby making the acquisition of truly world-class military hardware even further away than it was back in 2011 when hopes were high soon after the Conservative Party took office with a majority government. One fears the influence of too many libertarians, and not enough conservatives, in the current right-of-center political milieu.

Even if the United States relaxed its export restrictions on the F-22, the hard questions remain to be answered: (1) would it consider Canada a suitable export market?, and (2) could Canada muster the required political support that would allow us to afford a meaningful number of F-22s and then operate them at their full capacity?

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