Alain Pelletier can still remember that new plane smell when he first climbed into the cockpit of a CF-18 more than three decades ago.
The retired Royal Canadian Air Force lieutenant general, who was deputy commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in Colorado Springs from July 2020 until June 2023, knows what it takes to get a new fleet of fighter aircraft up and running. He thinks the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) would be stretched thin for pilots, technicians and trainers if ordered to double that effort for a combined fleet of American-made Lockheed Martin F-35s and Saab Gripen-E fighters.
