Canada and Portugal are both considering backing out of deals to buy Lockheed Martin F-35 fighters citing geopolitical factors. One of Canada's new Prime Minister Mark Carney's first directives was to tell Defence Minister Bill Blair “to determine if the F-35 contract, as it stands, is the best investment for Canada, and if there are other options that could better meet Canada’s needs,” the Defence Department told the National Post in an email statement. Canada has already paid for 16 of the 88 F-35s it has ordered from Lockheed Martin in an initial purchase deal worth $13 billion. But Canada will pay an addition $60 billion for maintenance and upgrades over the aircraft's 30-year life span and most of that will be done by Lockheed Martin.
Lockheed Martin’s F-35 program has time on its side. U.S. orders alone, about 2,400 aircraft, can keep production going for nearly two decades. But politics change faster than assembly lines. So who knows.
Canada and Portugal backing away isn’t catastrophic, but it’s not a good trend either. For any company, cracks like these are rarely isolated.
One issue that should be considered is the fact that the F35 is single engine. This is not a major issue in a combat scenario I would think, but in northern Canada patrols the air bases are few and far between. A multi-engined machine will save itself and it’s pilot whilst the best outcome for a single engined fighter pilot on northern patrol would be the pilot able to share his survival rations with a curious polar bear. For N.A.T.O. commitments a bleeding edge fighter would be fine, either the Saab Gripen-E or the F35.
With the US kill switch in the F-35 system and the complex system of software upgrade - the F-35 system has big disadvantages. The Gripen has no kill switch where the Swedish government could make the system unusable pending which prime-minister we have. And the Gripen software upgrades are made in an afternoon. The F-35 software changes are calculated in weeks sometimes in months. Battle field conditions change by the day in the future. Even president Trump has stated the F-35 system is obsolete. Of course I am from Sweden so I favor the Gripen.
Not emotional. How do countries dependent on US weapons know that the current or any future administration will continue to allow shipment of parts and upgrades? Or will there be new conditions to be met?
When US policy is purely transactional and when the US is viewed as an unreliable ally, seeking weapons from reliable allies is utterly rational.