Defence Minister David McGuinty is expected to announce next week in the United Kingdom that Canada will play a role in an international program to build the next generation of stealth fighter jets, CBC News has learned.
Canada has reached a deal to join the Global Combat Air Program as an “observer,” Canadian government sources said.
The U.K., Japan and Italy are all partners in the multibillion-dollar program to develop and build the sixth-generation fighter jet by 2035.
“Canada for too long has allowed its defence industry and its strategic approach to defence material, defence requirements to atrophy,” said retired lieutenant-general Christopher Coates, a former top NORAD commander.
“It’s a good move to anticipate where we need to be in the future so that we’re not playing catch-up.”
Canada is playing catch-up with the fifth generation of fighter jets. The government is reviewing whether it will go ahead with purchasing its full order of 88 F-35s from the U.S.
The government launched the review into the F-35s more than a year ago in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s annexation threats and tariffs hammering Canadian industries.
The decision to join an international program to create the next generation of fighter jet is not a replacement for the F-35, Coates said, and is instead complementary and offers new capabilities. He also said Canada needs more than 88 F-35s to defend itself and carry out its duties.
McGuinty will meet with his British, Japanese and Italian defence counterparts next week for a signing ceremony in London to formalize the observer status, a source said. Politico first reported the news about the deal.
A senior Canadian government official told CBC News that Canada has been talking about joining the Global Air Combat Program as an observer to get in on the development of advanced technology early to help Canada in decades to come.
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The official described getting observer status as a “first step” in the program that would open the door to classified talks about what Canada could bring to the table.
The Canadian government isn’t making any financial or policy commitments by becoming an observer, but considers it a key partnership to be able to upscale Canadian technology, the official said.
The official and two other sources CBC News spoke to asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
One of the sources with knowledge of the file said Canada’s participation in the program opens the door to purchasing the aircraft in the future.
Like a ‘first date’
Trevor Taylor, a U.K. defence expert at the Royal United Services Institute, said observer status is like a “first date.”
“It’s getting to know you and getting to accept what we might be getting into,” said Taylor, who is the director of the defence, industries and society program at RUSI. “And both parties have to be cautious about this.”
Taylor said the move pulls Canada closer to its allies including in Europe, but also sends a message to the U.S.
“They’re also sending a message to the United States that we have choice, Canada has agency in this matter,” Taylor said. “And that it is very reluctant to be forced into a particular line of action.”
The U.S. has its own program it’s working on alone to build a sixth-generation fighter jet: the F-47.
While unveiling the plan last year, Trump said the aircraft would be “the most advanced, most capable, most lethal aircraft ever built” and that “nothing else in the world would come even close to it.”
Taylor said that jet might be so advanced that it might not be accessible even to the U.S.’s closest allies.
Coates said he worked alongside Americans at NORAD and thinks they would see Canada joining the U.K., Italy and Japan’s fighter jet program as “very positive” because it shows Canada is committing to do more to defend North America.
“It allows us, with our allies and partners, to become part of developing a vision for the future of air power, so that Canada never finds itself, as it is today, well behind in terms of years and capabilities to defend our nation and defend our allies,” said Coates, who is director of foreign policy, national defence and national security at the MacDonald-Laurier Institute.
The Canadian government official CBC News spoke to said the U.K., Japan and Italy’s program could be perceived as competing with the United States, but the reality is they’re all allies and partners.
Pressure from U.S. ambassador
The official said they suspect the Global Combat Air Program would try to ensure the fighter jet is interoperable with the United States’ sixth-generation fighter.
The U.S. ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, has been putting pressure on the Canadian government to move ahead with buying 88 F-35s.
Hoekstra had a pair of the F-35 fighter jets roar over his July 4 party in Ottawa as a political nudge at Canada.
Pete Hoekstra, U.S. President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Canada, warned about potential consequences to the NORAD continental defence pact if Canada doesn’t complete the purchase of 88 F-35 fighter jets and instead buys Sweden’s Gripen jets.
While talking about the possibility of Canada having a mixed fleet for its fifth-generation fighter jets, Hoekstra told CTV News last month that European fighter jets “don’t really count as full airplanes” if they don’t integrate with the U.S. fleet.
McGuinty is among a delegation of ministers travelling to the United Kingdom to attend the Farnborough International Airshow next week.
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly, Secretary of State for Defence Procurement Stephen Fuhr and Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon are all expected to attend the air show.
McGuinty’s announcement is expected to happen during the same week that officials and companies from around the world are in the London area for that air show.
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