Beef
I really don't even know what makes the super hornet attractive. We have hornets, my understanding was we kind of built them under license. I wish I know what that means.
We did not build our Hornets...they were built by McDonnel Douglas with some mods required by Canada.
Building under license means, essentially, paying a fee, usually per aircraft plus a flat fee, to build another company's aircraft. They supply all the data, engineering, pattern aircraft etc. (sometimes jigs and related) but they are built by another company.
We could not get a license to do that with the Hornet.
When it comes to jets we did license build (and in some cases substantially change the aircraft) the
1) F-86 Sabre (Candair CL-13) Marks I thorugh VI, Marks II, V, VI being the main production IIRCC...apprx 1800 of them including for Britain and Germany IIRCC
2) T-33 T-Bird/Silver Star (Canadair CT-133), several hundred
3) CF-104 Starfighter single seaters only (again Canadair) 200 for Canada and a number for others
4) CF-5 Freedom Fighter (Canadair) another several hundred
So as you can see we have made several thousand military jets.
The New Tubs for the Australian F-18s where also done in Canada over the last few years by I believe L-3 in Eastern Canada...so we could re tub and overhaul our F-18s.
So we have the ability, the technology...but lack the political will.
Of course I want new plane and the best ones. In fact I'm ok with trying some F-35s and paying a bit more tax. So what?
It's not just getting new, its getting the right aircraft for our needs and economics.
That is where I don't agree with the F-35...In my opinion I think its the wrong aircraft on both counts.
In my highly biased personal opinion