Retired Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Lt. Gen. Yvan Blondin, who commanded the RCAF between 2012 and 2015, is advising Canada to curtail significantly the nation’s buy of Lockheed Martin [LMT] F-35A fighters.
Canadian Defense Minister Bill Blair said this month that he plans to consider alternatives to the F-35A.
Upon becoming head of the RCAF in 2012, Blondin said that the F-35 was Canada’s best choice to replace the country’s Boeing [BA] CF-18 Hornets.
Subsequently, Canada wanted to replace the CF-18s with the F-35, but then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s 2015 campaign promised not to buy the aircraft, and the government eventually started an open competition.
More than two years ago, Canada finalized a $19 billion deal to buy 88 F-35As to replace the 76 CF-18s for the RCAF (Defense Daily, Jan. 9, 2023). So far, Canada has bought 16 F-35As for delivery next year.
“I/we recommended to Prime Minister [Stephen] Harper the F-35 as the best choice for Canada in 2012,” Blondin wrote in a LinkedIn post this week. “There is no question that the F-35 was the best choice for the decades long Canadian defense concept based on strong NATO and NORAD alliances and like-minded democratic nation coalitions anchored by the United States, where we were comfortable in sharing intelligence, parts, weapons, research, personnel; training together, and fighting together.”
“This reality has been shattered,” Blondin wrote. “The ‘like-mindedness’ of our most critical ally has disappeared…The reality is that, without U.S. consent, no country can hope to operate the F-35 for long. The U.S. controls its operating software, updates, upgrades, maintenance, parts and armament.”
For the Future Fighter Capability Project to replace the CF-18s, Boeing’s Super Hornet, the Gripen E by Sweden’s Saab, Airbus‘ Eurofighter Typhoon, Dassault‘s Rafale, and the F-35 were the candidates, but Dassault and Airbus withdrew their offers in 2018 and 2019, respectively, partially over intelligence sharing and interoperability requirements, and Canada dismissed Boeing’s offer in 2021.
“There is time before having to commit to buy the remaining 72 [F-35A] aircraft, and we may find, for example, that 36 F-35 and 150 other fighter aircraft, such as Rafale or Gripen, could be a better strategic, economic and military posture while investing heavily in 6th gen developments,” Blondin wrote.
Officials in other countries, including Denmark and Portugal, are also re-considering whether the F-35 is their best future fighter option (Defense Daily, March 20).