The leader of the NDP, Jagmeet Singh, announced on Sunday that his party would cancel the Canada contract to buy F-35 built by the United States and search for companies to build combat planes in Canada, a proposal that some experts in defense, according to some experts in defense, comes with pronounced costs.
“Buy from the [United] The states at this time are not in our national security interest, “Singh told journalists in Iqaluit just a few days after Defense Minister Bill Blair said that Canada is reconsidering his purchase F-35 amid tensions with Washington.
“We buy combat planes where the company will build those jets in [Canada]Creating jobs, but also a national security of knowing that we can build and we can maintain those combat planes in our own country, “added Singh.
After years of delay, the liberal government signed a contract with the American defense giant Lockheed Martin in June 2023 to buy 88 F-35 aircraft.
But now, when the president of the United States, Donald Trump, increases his threats to Annexar Canada by the economic force, there has been a About support Among Canadians to kill the purchase of $ 19 billion and look for airplanes elsewhere.
However, canceling the contract is not as easy as it seems, according to Philippe Lagassé, associate professor at Carleton University whose research focuses on defense policy and acquisition.
Lagasé said there would be penalties for canceling the contract directly, in addition to having to rethink or stop the development and infrastructure training for F-35.
“End that contract now without having another plan in the place would be quite difficult for Canadian forces, including the CF-18 fleet that is really at the end of your life.”
In a press release, the NDP said it would launch a new tender competition that “prioritizes Canadian works and the independence of the United States.”
The Party highlighted a proposal from the Swedish company Saab, which promised the assembly of its Fighting Air Air Fighting would take place in Canada and there would be a transfer of intellectual property, which would allow the aircraft to be maintained in Canada.
Lagasé said the acquisition rules would not allow Canada to simply turn around and accept Saab’s proposal, which ended second in the previous competition.
“This is not how it works in the law. I should establish another program and reconsider how it will do this,” said Lagassé.
The NDP press release originally had a headline that said that the party “will build F-35 in Canada” until it was changed to say that the NDP “will build airplanes in Canada, will invest in the sovereignty of the north and Arctic of Canada.”
Safety concerns with F-35s
In its launch, the NDP said that if Canada buys F-35 from the USA, that the government will retain the “complete control” of the software and hardware updates necessary to continue operating the plane, which the party says it is a strategic vulnerability.
Rebecca Miller, director of Global Relations of the media at Lockheed Martin, addressed the wrong online information that suggested that the F-35 have a “murder switch” that could turn off the plane that belongs to allies or train capacities if the United States ordered the company to do it.
“As part of our government contracts, we deliver all system infrastructure and the data required so that all F-35 customers hold the aircraft,” Miller said in a statement. “We remain committed to providing affordable and reliable support services to our clients that allow them to complete their missions and return home safely.”
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Lagasé said that the United States could “probably” prevent new updates or pieces, but pointed out that “all armed forces have this problem. Reality is [Canadian and American] The military are as interconnected as the commercial relationship. “
“We are indexing too much on a plane when it comes to a conversation about a general capacity.”
The former chief of the defense staff, Tom Lawson, told CBC News on Sunday that software updates could deny someone, “and then be trapped using a plane that would age without choosing the next few years or during the time it was expelled.”
“But the scenario under which it would happen would be one of the absolute aggression between the United States and Canada. And I am not sure that there is any indication that we are about to have such discussions,” Lawson said.
