Canada is buying the F-35. For real this time. After about 24y of being a Tier 2 partner of the Joint Strike Fighter Program (JSF), the Lockheed Martin produced 5th generation fighter finds itself in the hands of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). In the selection saga, it went from a single choice to a competition format with interim solutions of Hornet and Super Hornet in the mix, over to a final stand-off against Saab Gripen. Join Chris as the talks to Richard Shimooka from the Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI) about two decades of political twists and turns.

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- Sources -
Richard Shimooka
https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/cm-expert...
-
Berthiaume, Lee; Canada not sending fighter jets to Europe next year as Air Force rearms, regroups, 14 Dec 2022. available at https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canad... [last accessed 11/01/2023].

Defense Deconstructed Podcast, Future Fighter Capability: F-35, 4 Feb 2022, available at https://www.cgai.ca/future_fighter_ca... [last accessed 11/01/2023].

GovCanada; Announcement regarding the F-35 acquisition, 9 Jan 2023, available at https://www.canada.ca/en/department-n... [last accessed 11/01/2023].

GovCanada; Canada finalizes agreement to purchase new fighter jets for Royal Canadian Air Force, 9 Jan 2023, available at https://www.canada.ca/en/public-servi... [last accessed 11/01/2023].

Shimooka, Richard; Amateur Hour: The Interim Super Hornet Saga and the Perils of Prioritizing Politics Over Defence, MLI Publication, January 2018, available at https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/mli-files... [last accessed 11/01/2023].

Shimooka, Richard; The Catastrophe: Assessing the Damage from Canada’s Fighter Replacement Fiasco, MLI Publication, May 2019, available at https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/mli-files... [last accessed 11/01/2023].

Shimooka, Richard; The Forth Dimension: The F-35 Program, Defence Procurement, and the Conservative, CDA Institute Vimy Paper No. 33, Sept 2016, available at https://cdainstitute.ca/wp-content/up... [last accessed 11/01/2023].

Stephenson, Alan; Gaming the CF-18 Fighter Replacement: The Politicizing of a Military Procurement, Dec 2017, Canadian Global Affairs Institute, available at https://www.cgai.ca/gaming_the_cf_18_... [last accessed 11/01/2023].

Visuals: DoD

- Timecodes -
00:00 - Canada buys F-35
00:54 - 1998: The Saga begins
09:39 - 2010: 1st decision to buy
12:43 - Audits and working bodies: special political treatment?
16:11 - 2014: A first deal is made
19:02 - Deal turns into a scandal so no F-35
20:39 - 2015: Election and government change (Harper - Trudeau)
24:29 - I get confused (and interrupt like a muppet): suddenly Canada wants Super Hornet as an interim solution
26:46 - Intermission
27:37 - 2016/2017: The plan changes again and now Australian Hornets appear, also pilot retention problems
33:21 - More pilot and crew retention problems
35:20 - 2016/2017: No (real) progress towards a fighter competition
39:03 - 2018: Competition starts
40:51 - Quick explainer: What are offsets
41:26 - Competition: Super Hornet, Gripen and F-35
45:04 - Changes in requirements and scoring - Super Hornet eliminated
49:09 - Range requirements
50:39 - 2021/2022: Final selection
53:10 - Financial benefits: Partner Status vs Offsets
58:18 - 2022: Final deal

- Audio -
Music and Sfx from Epidemic Sound