[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by 0utf0xZer0

Canada agrees to buy 65 fighter jets for $138.5 million per plane.

Okay, seriously... I'm sure that the F-35 will be a great fighter jet once it actually enters service... but isn't this more than twice the per unit cost of the most recent F-18 variant? And an untendered contract to boot?

An F-35 is more capable than the most recent F-18 variant by far. It's also the only plane on the market that would possibly be able to hold it's own against Russia's PAK-FA. The only other options Canada could consider are begging the US to sell it F-22s, which isn't going to happen any time soon, or try to buy some PAK-FAs of their own.