Canada takes delivery of first two F-35As
Locally designated the CF-35, the two jets will be used for training Canadian personnel at Luke AFB in the US.
Canada has taken delivery of its first two Lockheed Martin F-35A stealth fighters, amid broader uncertainty about the future of the stealth jet acquisition programme.
The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) confirms its lead F-35As, locally designated the CF-35, were accepted on 22 October. The jets will be temporarily stationed at Luke AFB in the US to support the training of new Canadian crews — a standard practice for new F-35 customers.
“The future of air and space power is built on more than equipment alone. We are developing the skilled people, integrated capabilities, and modern tools we need to meet future challenges at home and abroad,” the service says.
Unlike other international F-35 customers, there was no unveiling ceremony or delivery fanfare at Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth, Texas, F-35 production facility to celebrate the handover of Canada’s first aircraft. That is because the programme remains in a state of flux, a potential casualty of the deteriorating relationship between Ottawa and Washington resulting from a trade war launched by US President Donald Trump.
After initially announcing a programme covering 88 F-35As, Canada may truncate its fleet at only 16 aircraft — the portion of the order for which funds have already been irrevocably committed.
Instead, the government of Prime Minister Mark Carney is weighing an alternative offer from Swedish manufacturer Saab for the Gripen E/F fourth-generation fighter — complete with a Canadian assembly line. The Carney government is also negotiating with Saab over the acquisition of six GlobalEye airborne early warning and control jets as a potential package deal with the Gripen.
Saab has floated a package deal for both the Gripen E/F fighter and GlobalEye surveillance jet, for which Canada has already launched procurement negotiations. Source: Saab
Top Canadian officials have repeatedly demurred when asked about their plans for the F-35 programme.
“Whether we will go ahead with the Gripen, the decision has not yet been taken, and you will not have me saying anything different today,” said Canadian industry minister Melanie Joly to laughs at a 14 October defence industry summit in Ottawa organised by the Globe and Mail newspaper.
Joly has been a key figure in Ottawa pushing to expand Canada’s domestic defence industry, including pushing Lockheed to sweeten the economic offsets included in Canada’s F-35 contract. Around 30 Canadian firms are already suppliers to Lockheed’s global F-35 assembly operations, according to the RCAF.
Both political and defence officials, including RCAF commander Lieutenant General Jamie Speiser-Blanchet, have long said the final decision on fighter procurement rests with Prime Minister Carney, who launched a review of Canada’s F-35 acquisition soon after taking office in 2025.
The findings of that review, originally promised for the autumn of 2025, have yet to be released.
Joly affirms that Carney will have the final say on the matter.
“I’m not the ultimate decision-maker, so I’ll let the prime minister answer that question,” she said on 14 October when asked if a resolution to the F-35 purchase is forthcoming.
However, there are signs the impasse may soon break.
The Canadian Aerospace Summit will be held in Ottawa this week, an event which Saab chief executive Micael Johansson plans to attend.
“I will have more of a feeling where we are after that conference,” Johansson said during a quarterly earnings call last week.
Joly also hinted that a conclusion to the saga may be close at hand during her appearance at the Globe and Mail summit.
“We’ll take decisions, and the decisions we’ll take, I think, within a couple weeks,” Joly said, though she declined to specify to which procurement programmes she was referring.
Ottawa has recently paused or slowed other defence purchases besides the F-35.
The government froze plans to buy 16 UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters from Sikorsky over the summer as Ottawa and Washington grappled with trade negotiations that ultimately proved fruitless.
Other major acquisitions of American equipment are still moving forward, including the Boeing P-8A maritime patrol jet and General Atomics MQ-9B long-range uncrewed surveillance aircraft.
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