Ottawa

About that interoperability

Peter MacKay, January 27, 2011.  “We need this aircraft,” MacKay said at a joint press conference with U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates in Ottawa. “It is the only fifth-generation aircraft that has the capability and the on-board equipment and the stealth capacity and the weapons radar system that is interoperable with our colleagues and our allies in the United States through NORAD.”

Peter MacKay, October 24, 2011With respect to the F-35, as was just stated, this is a state-of-the-art fifth generation aircraft that will provide us sovereignty in our north and the ability to be interoperable with our important partners, the United States of America and other partners within this program. The F-35 is the best plane for the best pilots in the Canadian air force.

Peter MacKay, October 25, 2011The member would know, with a little bit of time and effort and a little research, that the F-35 is the only fifth-generation aircraft available to Canadians. This aircraft will provide sovereignty and security over our Arctic and over our massive coastlines. It is interoperable with our NATO allies.

Peter MacKay, November 18, 2011.  I’m talking about subject matters such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program and our mutual interest in the procurement of this 21st-century aircraft to protect North America, to continue to be interoperable and to work together in international missions, as we’ve seen most recently in the mission Unified Protector in Libya.

Stephane Abrial, yesterday. “We do not advocate a single type of aircraft, single type of ships, single type of rifles,” Abrial said. “We never wanted to make sure everyone has the same equipment: that’s not our goal.” Abrial said interoperability has to do primarily with training and ensuring all NATO forces have sufficient skills to function as one on the battlefield. “Interoperability means you are different but you work together,” he said. “We look at the fact that when two units, two soldiers fighting side by side, can work together, exchange information and talk to each other.”

See previously: The rhetoric behind the F-35 and The amazing, disappearing contract that never was

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