Time-sharing jets proposed

Toronto Sun ^ | 2002-11-27 | Stephanie Rubec

[Lorenb420]

OTTAWA -- Defence Minister John McCallum says buying a military plane is as easy as time-sharing a condo.

McCallum said the Canadian Forces are looking at pooling their money with other NATO militaries to lease a fleet of huge transport planes.

"It's kind of like a time-sharing condominium," he said after a cabinet meeting. "You get the time in proportion to the money you put in. It's certainly worth looking into."

McCallum said only the U.S. and United Kingdom have large transport planes, so other NATO countries decided last week to look into sharing a fleet.

McCallum said he'll insist at least one of those planes be stationed in Canada, since it would take too long for them to fly over from Europe for a deployment of Canadian troops.

BUY PLANES

"And we'd have to make sure we have access when we really needed it," he said. "Who gets the good weeks? That's the question."

Canadian Alliance MP Leon Benoit said time-sharing won't work because all countries need the aircrafts at the same time, so the Liberal government should buy planes.

"We'll be considered one of the big players again in NATO and amongst our allies," Benoit said. "And the political payoff of that is substantial."

The Canadian Forces have had to hitchhike on U.S. planes to get their equipment to and from deployments like Afghanistan.

That cost the military about $18 million.

[maximus@Nashville]

It cost the Canadians 18 million for the use of our air-lift capacity? The Canadians got a bargain. Sounds much cheaper than buying their own planes.

Time-sharing sounds like an unworkable idea. Who pays for maintainance? Who pays if the plane cracks up or is shot down? The potential enemies have only to find out when a certain country has use of the transports in order to plan their own offensives.

[Sparta]

Anything so the socialist "allies" don't have to increase their defence budgets.

[Sgt_Schultze]

Roger that. Our "moron" should call their d!ckhead and tell the cretin that the US will no longer guarantee Canadian security. As long as our airspace isn't invaded, we will recognize Canadian sovereignty and allow her to defend herself.

Maybe when the butch weenies on the left in Canada realize that the US will no longer tax her citizens to defend Canadians, they will think again about their social policies and where they should stick their friggin opinions.

[boris]

Wasn't there a U.S. president, who, when confronted with a request from the "Army Air Force" for dozens of planes, asked: "Can't they just buy one and let the pilots take turns flying it?"

Looks like the Canadians have just come up with the same idea. Typical.

--Boris