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.
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
Yeah. Agreed.
I read that it’s trivially easy for the US to remotely disable those planes. Seems like a security concern to use them.
That alone should be reason enough to not buy it. I bet it’s not even trivial to verify if that’s the case which gives even more reason to not go ahead with the purchase.
They can’t shut them off. They can do something like MS is doing with EOLing Windows 10 tho. No more security updates, which in this case means they’d over time become more vulnerable to adversary ECM jamming.
They could cut off a country from getting parts needed to keep the planes flying which is actually more significant. It wouldn’t be easy, but a country could replace the computer systems in a jet. A military has it’s own technicians maintain their equipment and they would understand which signals are needed from the cockpit to make the plane work.
The Lockheed Martin could shut down the planes thing is FUD and isn’t convincing anyone in the know. The potential for cutting a country off from resupply is real, and the US has done that to Ukraine, a country in the middle of a war.
My understanding is that that plane needs to “call home” daily or it won’t work.
I couldn’t find the article, but found a more recent one that basically agrees with you, except on the whole replacement of the computer systems. That plane took so long to complete and had so many problems, im betting it’s easier to design a new plane rather than reverse engineer this one but that’s neither here nor there.
I think the largest issue is the over-dependence on the US military across the board which as you mentioned, we see playing out in the Ukraine already.
Do you think the EU has what it takes to rebuild fast enough to stand up for themselves alone?
I hope so. I’m not informed enough to know.
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/
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.
Watch us go from “you can’t own scary black rifle” to “here’s your annual home armory allotment of hand grenades”.
Can we add non-nuclear EMP weapons? Asking for a friend.
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.
They should send their pilots to Ukraine to practice until the war with America starts
Or Israel. The IDF might be too tough, though.
Time to look into purchasing Swedish National Bonds, 'cause those Grippens will be grippin.
I’d try and join one of the two European projects for a sixth gen fighter the main ones being Bae (Tempest) or Dassault/Airbus (FCAS).
Gripens! You love to see it.
I’d love to see if it wasn’t “considers”.
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.
It’s still buying proprietary tech from an enemy. It’s fucking stupid.
Frankly, i think buying military equipment is stupid from the outset. Buy the designs if you really gotta have a third party design, but a government should be the sole hand in all of its most important programs/functions. It’s like private healthcare or private infrastructure, it’s too important to leave in the hands of a bad economic system.
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.
She’s probably on Trump’s side tbh
She’s a lunatic, but if you pay her she’ll still do it
Can the US shut down the planes from afar? Why would Canada submit to this purchase if that is a factor?
Maybe they can get in on BAE Systems Tempest and help to push things forward.
