Farewell to the F-35?

Canada may drop its purchase of American-made fighter jets in favor of Swedish ones...assuming it can be bothered to buy them.

With a newly hostile and at least rhetorically expansionist Administration in the White House, Canada is reconsidering its decision to purchase American-made F-35 fighter jets:

Canada is actively looking at potential alternatives to the U.S.-built F-35 stealth fighter and will hold conversations with rival aircraft makers, Defence Minister Bill Blair said late Friday, just hours after being reappointed to the post as part of Prime Minister Mark Carney's new cabinet.

The remarks came one day after Portugal signalled it was planning to ditch its acquisition of the high-tech warplane.

The re-examination in this country is taking place amid the bruising political fight with the Trump administration over tariffs and threats from the American president to annex Canada by economic force.

There has been a groundswell of support among Canadians to kill the $19-billion purchase and find aircraft other than those manufactured and maintained in the United States.

[…]

Canada has already put down its money for the first 16 warplanes, which are due to be delivered early next year.

Blair is suggesting that the first F-35s might be accepted and the remainder of the fleet would be made up of aircraft from European suppliers, such as the Swedish-built Saab Gripen, which finished second in the competition.

"The prime minister has asked me to go and examine those things and have discussions with other sources, particularly where there may be opportunities to assemble those fighter jets in Canada," Blair said.

That was an indirect reference to the Swedish proposal, which promised that assembly would take place in Canada and there would be a transfer of intellectual property, which would allow the aircraft to be maintained in this country.

Major maintenance, overhaul and software upgrades on the F-35 happen in the United States.

I might very well be on board with ditching the F-35 in favor of the Gripen for several reasons:

• even if Trump is gone in 2029 or even earlier, we now know that someone like Trump is a possibility every four years, so diversifying our trading partners and defense suppliers is a good idea;

• final assembly of the Gripen could be done by IMP Group, right here in Nova Scotia;

• Saab made offbeat but cool cars back in the day, before General Motors ran the automaking division straight into the ground; and,

• just look at it!!!

Yeah, I think this could look pretty freaking awesome in Royal Canadian Air Force livery.

So why do I just say I “might very well be on board with” ditching the F-35 for the Saab, instead of enthusiastically endorsing the idea?

Because this is Canada, and while my beloved country is great in many ways, we absolutely suck when it comes to buying new military equipment:

By 2009 the Army realized that it needed something heavier than a LAV 3 in Afghanistan and they needed it on an urgent basis. The Army wanted to buy the Swedish Combat Vehicle 90 off the shelf, but bureaucracy prevailed. A competition was then launched to ascertain which Close Combat Vehicle (CCV) would be best suited for Canada's future Army. The project called for the purchase of 108 CCV's at a cost of $2.1 billion, and they were to be the backbone of our combat forces for the foreseeable future. After two rounds of what was called 'testing to destruction' the three remaining bidders - BAE Systems, Nexter and GDLS - were informed that the whole deal was off. Given that our combat mission in Afghanistan was concluded, the Harper Conservatives killed the procurement to save money.

It was the Harper Conservatives who had also originally announced in 2010 that they would buy 65 Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters to replace the RCAF's 80 CF-18's at a purchase cost of $9 billion. The first delivery of these CF-35's was to be in late 2016. However in 2015 the Trudeau Liberals ran on the promise that if elected they would scrap the Conservative’s plans to purchase the controversial CF-35 Joint Strike Fighters. Once elected, Trudeau did scrap the initiative to buy the F-35s and the Liberals subsequently ordered the RCAF to hold a competition to determine the CF-18's best possible replacement. Lo and behold the F-35 won the competition and the price tag is now $19 billion for 88 aircraft, the first of which will not be delivered until 2026.

For the long suffering Royal Canadian Navy nothing exemplifies their dangling carrot of procurement promises better than the saga to replace the now long retired HMCS Protecteur class supply ships. First announced in 2004, the original timeline called for a contract to be signed by 2009 with the first of three ships delivered and in service by 2012. There is now only two such ships on the order book and the first will not be delivered until 2025 with the second due in 2027. The cost has continued to climb.

Academic studies on rebuilding the Canadian Forces using “an anti-oppression framework” of “feminist, decolonial, critical race, queer, critical disability, and critical political economy theories,” now, that kind of thing we’re world leaders in procuring. But why can’t we buy new planes and stuff on time?