Pierre-Henri “ATE” Chuet – a 4.5 Gen Dassault Rafale fighter pilot and I break down the evolution from 4th to 4.5 to 5th Generation fighters.
Even as air forces move rapidly toward Collaborative Combat Aircraft and 6th Gen development, this conversation still matters. Understanding how we got here is essential to understanding where we’re going.
Canada has suddenly become a nation of defence experts.
Politicians, press, and public—all arguing with great conviction about what Canada needs to defend itself. Most of it centers on pushing back against anything American. At the top of the list: the F-35. These are smart people. I talk to them, listen to them, read their arguments, see their posts. But on topics they knew virtually nothing about just months ago, they now speak with absolute certainty.
This may be the ultimate display of the Dunning-Kruger effect of our time.
What is the purpose of a fighter jet?…to shoot missiles, drop bombs, and kill bad guys.
The fundamental truth often gets lost in procurement debates: fighter jets exist to deliver lethal force and protect national interests in the most dangerous environments imaginable. Everything else – the economics, the politics, the optics – is secondary to whether the aircraft can complete its mission and bring the pilot home alive.
The difference now is that the information environment has weaponized our indecision. Foreign actors don’t need to defeat Canada militarily – they just need to keep us arguing about fighter procurement until our deterrent capability is irrelevant. Mission accomplished! We are debating Gripen versus F-35 in 2026 while our adversaries are flying and testing sixth-generation systems and CCAs.
You can’t claim ignorance when the playbook is this obvious and we’re still falling for it.
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