Summary
Canada is reconsidering its F-35 fighter jet purchase amid rising tensions with the Trump administration.
Defence Minister Bill Blair stated Canada is exploring alternatives to the $19-billion contract for 88 jets, suggesting Canada might accept the first 16 already paid for while sourcing remaining aircraft from European suppliers like Saab.
This follows Trump’s tariff threats and comments about “annexing Canada by economic force.”
The Swedish-built Saab Gripen, which finished second in the competition, offers assembly in Canada, thus avoiding dependence on U.S.-based maintenance.
Not continuing to buy aircraft from a country whose current leader threatens with hostile action seems only 100% reasonable.
I would advise them to keep the ones they have, though - given their current threat model, until the US president changes, they need a “red team” to practise against.
Canada needs to redirect most of its defence spending to asymmetric warfare. You know, the same advice US consultants give to Taiwan to make a PRC occupation more expensive to contemplate. Forget about big ticket items meant to support the US in its overseas wars; start investing in mines, guerilla equipment, etc.
Can we add non-nuclear EMP weapons? Asking for a friend.
Why would we want brickable planes from an aggressor?
This would be like the US buying MiGs during the cold war.
The Migs aren’t always online, controlled by a cloud.
They weren’t even solid state!
because they have AI!
I feel like Canada has smart enough engineers to fix that issue.
It’s a part of the software, which is a classified black box only the US sees into.
Didn’t Israel get access to the code as part of their contract? Kinda wish we had asked for the same thing now…
Nope
Hmm, looks like it’s still running the locked US codebase but they were allowed to install their own electronic addons to it.
Fuck DRM
It is insane that anyone buys F35’s with DRM
Need empress to get on this.
Shouldn’t even be up for consideration at this point. Buy jets from trustworthy people (like EU), and if you want total defense independence start building the framework to build Canadian jets for when these ones approach EoL.
Sane countries with coherent foreign policy release this type of messaging in advance of reversing a $70 billion dollar contract. The F35 deal is dead. The trillions of dollars worth of goodwill and brand damage Trump has done to the US is hard to fathom. He is like a category 5 hurricane crossing the US for 40 days and 40 nights. #UnitedStatesOfEmbarrassment
Time to look into purchasing Swedish National Bonds, 'cause those Grippens will be grippin.
Can the US shut down the planes from afar? Why would Canada submit to this purchase if that is a factor?
Gripens! You love to see it.
I’d love to see if it wasn’t “considers”.
I read that it’s trivially easy for the US to remotely disable those planes. Seems like a security concern to use them.
Yeah you read a lot of things. Doesn’t mean they’re true.
Correct. I did follow up today and read some more sources and it sounds like it’s not quite as simple a story, but the dependence on the US military seems to be a significant issue. I found a better article with a more nuanced take here if you’re interested in that sort of thing: https://theaviationist.com/2025/03/10/f-35-kill-switch-myth/
