Canada reconsidering F-35 purchase amid tensions with Washington, says minister

Murray Brewster · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 14, 2025 7:11 PM EDT | Last Updated: 9 minutes ago

Canada is actively looking astatine imaginable alternatives to the U.S-built F-35 stealth combatant and volition clasp conversations with rival craft makers, Defence Minister Bill Blair said precocious Friday, conscionable hours aft being reappointed to the station arsenic portion of Prime Minister Mark Carney's caller cabinet.

The remarks came 1 time aft Portugal signalled it was readying to ditch its acquisition of the high-tech warplane.

The re-examination successful this state is taking spot amid the bruising governmental combat with the Trump medication implicit tariffs and threats from the American president to annex Canada by economical force.

There has been a groundswell of enactment among Canadians to termination the $19-billion acquisition and find craft different than those manufactured and maintained successful the United States.

After years of delay, the Liberal authorities signed a declaration with the U.S. defence elephantine Lockheed Martin successful June 2023 to acquisition 88 F-35 jets.

The speech astir Canada getting retired of the woody is presently taking spot with the military, Blair told CBC's Power & Politics.

"It was the combatant pitchy identified by our aerial unit arsenic the level that they required, but we are besides examining different alternatives — whether we request each of those combatant jets to beryllium F-35," Blair said.

Canada has already enactment down its wealth for the archetypal 16 warplanes, which are owed to beryllium delivered aboriginal adjacent year. 

Blair is suggesting that the archetypal F-35s mightiness beryllium accepted and the remainder of the fleet would beryllium made up of craft from European suppliers, specified arsenic the Swedish-built Saab Gripen, which finished 2nd successful the competition.

"The premier curate has asked maine to spell and analyse those things and person discussions with different sources, peculiarly wherever determination whitethorn beryllium opportunities to assemble those combatant jets successful Canada," Blair said.

That was an indirect notation to the Swedish proposal, which promised that assembly would instrumentality spot successful Canada and determination would beryllium a transportation of intelligence property, which would let the craft to beryllium maintained successful this country.

Major maintenance, overhaul and bundle upgrades connected the F-35 hap successful the United States.

The conception of Canada flying a mixed fleet of combatant jets is thing the aerial unit has agelong resisted, adjacent though it did truthful up until the 1980s erstwhile the existent CF-18s were purchased. It would mean 2 antithetic grooming regimes, abstracted hangars and infrastructure and a antithetic proviso concatenation — each of which defence planners person insisted for decades is excessively expensive.

Prior to Blair's statement, Lockheed Martin was asked astir Portugal's planned exit from the programme and whether it would person an interaction connected Canada.

"Lockheed Martin values our beardown concern and past with the Royal Canadian Air Force and looks guardant to continuing that concern into the future," said Rebecca Miller, Lockheed Martin's manager of global media relations, successful a statement.

"Foreign subject income are government-to-government transactions, truthful thing further volition beryllium champion addressed by the U.S. oregon respective lawsuit governments."

Miller besides addressed online misinformation that suggested the F-35s person a alleged "kill switch" that could crook disconnected craft belonging to allies — oregon hobble their capabilities, should the U.S. authorities bid it to bash so. 

"As portion of our authorities contracts, we present each strategy infrastructure and information required for each F-35 customers to prolong the aircraft," Miller said. "We stay committed to providing affordable and reliable sustainment services to our customers that alteration them to implicit their missions and travel location safely."

There would beryllium immoderate signifier of declaration punishment should Canada not proceed with the full purchase. How overmuch it would outgo to get retired of the declaration remains unclear.