Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR
Issue link: http://vanguardcanada.uberflip.com/i/103039
A Air Force These are just two examples of potential future concepts that could achieve the operational effects required, and leverage technological advances and reduce costs. I see opportunities. I see technology providing me with some solutions. On balancing current budget projections with urgent capability requirements: The department has not gone into heavy discussions to try and balance this, but we can see it coming, we can see the pressures. My intent is to prepare the discussion for this. I do not want to be discussing this with the army and the navy and trying to protect everything that is air force, and putting the pressure on them. I want to come to the table with solutions and be able to say, "this is how I can reduce the pressure from my side, how I can help and be part of the team?" On what next generation fighter technology offers: I've operated F-15s, F-16s, F-18s. The next generation of fighters – the F-22, F-35, what the Russians and the Chinese are developing – will have real advantages. The F-22, as an example, is an interceptor with the speed, manoeuvrability and systems to make it superior to other airplanes. I can put an F-22 and eight F-18s against each other and the F-22 is probably going to end up winning. The F-35 has systems to make it superior to what we've got. Every fighter is a compromise – you don't have an ideal fighter. The F-18s were a compromise on certain features; even the F-22 is only an air-to-air interceptor. When you develop a fighter, you want it small to reduce visibility and increase manoeuvrability, but at the same time you want it big to be able to carry a lot of bombs and multiple engines so that if I lose one to a missile I still have one or two to get home safe. So you make it small, but not so small that you can't carry at least a minimum amount of bombs; you make it big enough to carry fuel for the mission, but you include a probe to refuel in flight; you reduce the number of engines to hide your heat and radar signature. And you end up with something that is a compromise. But the F-35 also brings a fusion of technology, a fusion of sensors. And for me, this is the biggest advantage over the current class of airplanes. This is not '90s technology, this is tomorrow's technology. The fact that they are having a problem with the helmet means, for me, that it is not a helmet that was developed 10 years ago. It's a new concept and to make it work is difficult. But I have no doubt that this helmet is going to work, and when it does it is going to be the technology for the next 20 years. When I flew the F-18, I spent 90 percent of my time trying to figure out what the different screens were telling me, to build situational awareness: you've got all kinds of information coming at you but it's coming from different places and the fusion is in your brain. Having a concept where the airplane is sensing everything and providing information that is easily digested – for me, this is a revolution. If I can reduce that 90 percent to somewhere closer to 20-25 percent, it's a huge advantage. The F-35 represents where the western world is going. I'm going to be flying the F-18 for another 12-15 years – we will have flown it for close to 50 years by the time we shut off the engine of the last F-18. They were built for about 8,000 hours each and right now about 90 percent of flying is done on operations and 10 percent in a simulator. The F-35 will also be built for about 8,000 hours each, but we're looking at a concept of about 50 percent on operations. That will extend its life. And since I'm looking for a plane that can fly 50 years plus – I'm going to start flying it in the 2020s and fly it into the 2070s – I want an aircraft in 20502060 that will still be modern. If that airplane is being operated by the Americans, the Brits, the Australians and others, they will share the modernization costs. The reason we were able to costeffectively modernize our F-18s, and it is still a good airplane after 40 years, is because somebody else had built out the systems. When the U.S. modernized their F-18s, we had access to the same technology. So with the F-35, if this is going to be the American's main jet for the next 50 years, we will have access to the technology that is going to be around this airplane to keep it modern. At the time we bought the F-18, the Tornado was a new airplane. We considered it. Well, today the F-18 recently flew in operations over Libya and was one of the most effective airplanes there; the Tornado is an old airplane and doesn't have the systems to play in Every fighter is a compromise – you don't have an ideal fighter. The F-18s were a compromise on certain features; even the F-22 is only an air-to-air interceptor. Canadian Forces CF-18 18 DECEMBER 2012/JANUARY 2013 www.vanguardcanada.com