To the surprise of many, the Associated Press reports that Canada on Wednesday announced the last two candidates for Canada’s next generation of fighter jets and officially excluded the Boeing F / A-18E / F Block III Super Hornet (F-18).
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The Canadian government reportedly informed Boeing last week that its bid for a $ 19 billion contract did not meet its requirements to replace the McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet, which is already in service with the Canadian Air Force.
With the F / A-18E / F Block III Super Hornet excluded, at the moment, there are only two candidates left in the competition for the new Canadian fighter jet: The F-35 of Lockheed Martin and Saab Gripen of Sweden.
Canada has said that the final winner’s fighter jet must be able to connect to the top-secret information network “Two Eyes” used by the intelligence services of Canada and the United States, so it is likely that the winner as we predict on GEOPOLITIKI will be the F-35.
Since the Canada and the United States have such a close relationship, many assumed that in the final phase there would be only American aircraft, namely the F-35 and the Super Hornet, but in the end the place of the Super Hornet was suddenly taken by the Gripen of Sweden.
Airbus and Dassault Aviation took this as a given and a serious obstacle and abstained from the competition from the beginning.
Boeing issued a statement after the decision of exclusion of its F / A-18E / F Block III Super Hornet, stating that it is deeply disappointed with Canada.
The McDonnell Douglas Super Hornet first flew in 1995, and was designed and built by the company. After the merging of McDonnell Douglas and Boeing, low-rate production began in early 1997, followed by full-rate production in September 1997. Grumman F-14 Tomcat was retired in 2006, and the Super Hornet was put into service in 1999 to replace it.
According to Boeing, after forming in June 2001, the first operational F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet squadron was sent to sea in July 2002 aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72).
By 2007, Boeing had delivered the first Block II Super Hornet with AESA radar technology, and it was fully operational by the end of that year. Boeing will begin delivering the first of 78 F/A-18 Super Hornets to the US Navy in August of 2021.
Using Block III, the United States Navy will have the most networked and survivable F/A-18 ever constructed with a technology insertion plan that will keep up with future threats.
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