Prime Minister Mark Carney has asked for a review of Canada’s plan to purchase a fleet of F-35 fighter jets.
The deal with Lockheed Martin and the U.S. government is for 88 planes at a cost of about US$85 million each.
A spokesperson for Defence Minister Bill Blair said Carney has asked Blair to look into whether the F-35 contract is the best investment for Canada, or if there are better options.
“We need to do our homework given the changing environment, and make sure that the contract in its current form is in the best interests of Canadians and the Canadian Armed Forces,” Blair’s press secretary Laurent de Casanove said.
As I’ve said elsewhere the ECM pod updates can only be done by US staff. Without this week’s pod frequencies to hit the latest radar frequencies, the plane is a liability in the air because of it’s cost.
There is no way the US is going to code “enemy” planes’ ECM.
The F-35 program may well flatline from this upset.
Uncle Sam keeps his ECM frequencies under a pretty tight lock and key, speaking as someone who’s had to service ALQ-99 pods.