"Canadian defense officials have strongly made the case that Ottawa should stick to a plan to buy 88 Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jets rather than splitting the order, two sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
"The review stops short of making a formal recommendation, one of the sources said.
“The final decision rests with the Liberal government of Prime Minister Mark Carney, said the sources, who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation.”
I don’t know that we’re necessarily need to “run” two fighters, but it’s clear that there is no single platform that meets all sovereignty requirements. I don’t know what the split should be, but we can neither have zero air force, nor one that is completely ineffective against 1 of our top 3 threats. Buy some planes that come with technology transfer, and start looking at the next 30 year window.
Or quickly hop on board one of the Future Combat Air System / Global Combat Air Program.