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NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh announced Sunday his party would cancel Canada’s contract to buy U.S.-built F-35s and look for companies to build fighter jets in Canada — a proposal that some defence experts say comes with steep costs.
“Purchasing from the [United] States at this time is not in our national security interest,” Singh told reporters in Iqaluit just days after Defence Minister Bill Blair said Canada is reconsidering its F-35 purchase amid tensions with Washington.
“Let’s buy fighter jets 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 fighter jets in our own country,” Singh added.
After years of delay, the Liberal government signed a contract with the U.S. defence giant Lockheed Martin in June 2023 to purchase 88 F-35 jets.
But now, as U.S. President Donald Trump ramps up his threats to annex Canada by economic force, there’s been a groundswell of support among Canadians to kill the $19-billion purchase and look elsewhere for aircraft.
However, cancelling the contract entirely is not as easy as it sounds, according to Philippe Lagassé, a Carleton University associate professor whose research focuses on defence policy and procurement.
Lagassé said there would be penalties to cancelling the contract outright, on top of having to rethink or halt infrastructure development and training for the F-35s.
“To put an end to that contract now without having some other plan in place would be fairly difficult for the Canadian forces, including the CF-18 fleet which is really at the end of its life.”
In a news release, the NDP said it would launch a new bidding competition that “prioritizes Canadian jobs and independence from the United States.”
The party highlighted a proposal from Swedish company Saab, which promised assembly of its Gripen fighter jet would take place in Canada and there would be a transfer of intellectual property, which would allow the aircraft to be maintained in Canada.
Lagassé said procurement rules would not allow Canada to simply turn around and accept Saab’s proposal, which finished second in the previous competition.
“That’s not how this works in law. You would need to set up another program and reconsider how you’re going to do this,” Lagassé said.
The NDP news release originally had a headline that said the party “will build F-35s in Canada” until it was changed to say the NDP “will build jets in Canada, invest in Canada’s North and Arctic sovereignty.”
Security concerns with F-35s
In its release, the NDP said if Canada buys F-35s from the U.S., that government will retain “complete control” of the software and hardware upgrades needed to keep operating the plane, which the party says is a strategic vulnerability.
Rebecca Miller, Lockheed Martin’s director of global media relations, addressed online misinformation that suggested the F-35s have a “kill switch” that could turn off the aircraft belonging to allies or hobble capabilities if the U.S. ordered the company to do so.
“As part of our government contracts, we deliver all system infrastructure and data required for all F-35 customers to sustain the aircraft,” Miller said in a statement. “We remain committed to providing affordable and reliable sustainment services to our customers that enable them to complete their missions and come home safely.”
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Lagassé said the U.S. could “probably” prevent upgrades or new parts, but noted the “entire armed forces has this problem. The reality is the [Canadian and American] militaries are as interconnected as the trading relationship.”
“We’re over indexing on one plane when it’s a conversation about an overall capability.”
Former chief of the defence staff Tom Lawson told CBC News on Sunday that software upgrades could be denied to someone, “and then you’d be stuck using an aircraft which would age inelegantly in coming years or for as long as you were ejected.”
“But the scenario under which that would occur would be one of absolute aggression between the U.S. and Canada. And I’m not sure there’s any indication that we’re on the verge of those kinds of discussions,” Lawson said.
