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.
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.