Head of Government asked the Minister of Defence to review the contract as to whether it was the best investment from the Canadian point of view and whether there are better solutions – stated the Ministry of Defence press office quoted by The Canadian Press agency.
On Friday, in a CBC public service interview, Minister Blair said will check if there are alternatives to the planned purchase to equip Canadian military aviation U.S. F-35. He stressed that he would be consulting both the Canadian army and allies and partners on this substance to “see what is possible”.
Concerns of Canada about F-35 aircraft
As CBC emphasises, Canada's search for alternatives to F-35 appears in context threats from US president Donald Trump, and after information that Portugal wishes to retreat from F-35 purchase.
Last week, the paper “Ottawa Citizen” wrote that safety analysts warned that American control of key F-35 systems could endanger Canada's usage of the ordered fighters.
The Canadian government had talks with the U.S. on the acquisition of F-35 for many years, in 2010 Stephen Harper's conservative government reported that Canada would buy fresh fighters from Lockheed Martin. The media then described the problems that F-35 had in the Arctic. During the 2015 election campaign, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau declared that his government would never buy F-35, recalled “Ottawa Citizen”. Eventually, the agreement with Lockheed Martin had just concluded the government of Justin Trudeau in June 2023.
At the end of February this year, the Canadian paper "The National Post" wrote that Donald Trump was expected to give Lockheed Martin that he wanted jobs created in Canada related to service by Canadian construction companies F-35 to be transferred to the US.
