Canada to receive CF-18E/F/G?
UK to receive F-18E/F/G Sea Hornet?
As a Canadian taxpayer, I support this strategy completely.
The CF-18E/F/G would be totally adequate for Canadian purposes as there is no prospect that Canada would need the stealth capability of the F-35. The Super Hornet would do probably 95%+ of the job asked of the F-35 at one third the cost.
If my numbers are right, based on the $135 million a copy price for the most recent F-18E's bought by the USN, we could probably buy 100+ CF-18E's and come out with big savings in acquisition costs and much, much cheaper life cycle costs.
This business of technology for technology's sake has got to stop - we (the world) cannot afford it!