The amount of misinformation about the F35 is mind boggling. Nobody really knows.

Haha, I appreciate the comment, even L-M probably doesn't have it figured out yet. My reddit comments about politics are always a bit OTT, I fully understand that while the F35 is a fucking fiasco it's still the cheapest alternative if we don't wish to suddenly rudely expensively complicatedly disentangle ourselves from various defense and other alliances requiring us to stay up to speed with the sexy fast shiny gear the rest of the club uses. I just get a bit grumpy listening to various greasy-jowled cronies (in or out of government) crowing about stuff like this when they're paying themselves with taxpayer money and often using taxpayer research and facilities...for eventual TSX-listed private gain.

And meanwhile our servicemen and women are getting paid peanuts (and denied benefits later goddammit) to put themselves in harm's way in support of military action in places where it's difficult to see the locals want them there at all, seems like it's all infantry-based hearts-and-minds stuff, but instead we have zillions going towards F35s etc when everyone knows the next one for air action will missiles aside likely be drones anyhow or anyway not air battles. It's cheaper to send missiles (even if they're hardened against RF interference, and possibly on-board-AI-controlled) than human-piloted fighter cover+human-piloted bombers, surely. As time goes by I'd say the seesaw will inevitably tip towards machine control even if some meat is along for the ride (Source: Yukikaze, Good Luck Yukikaze).

Frankly even given the mind-boggling amount of money the F35 is costing/going to cost us, IMO it's not the biggest worry we have in that area. I think we need to get back to the peacekeeping on which we built our reputation. Albeit with some safeguards built in so Rwandas can't happen again (that was fucking ridiculous, it could've been stopped EASILY.) But even now there are a hell of a lot of trouble spots out there that could use a division of Van Doos or Princess Pats keeping the peace...we should start paying them better, recruiting more, and regaining our name as an honest broker. We can actually do that. Our military is absolutely chock-a-block with people who want to do it. We should let 'em.

TL,DR: Peacekeeping improvement/expansion, more than world-war war-fighting capability increase, is more in line with what many of us think of as being Canadian