U.S. government again urges Canada to acquire American fighter jets, despite Pentagon threat

The American government is  now all set to acquire US built fighter jets with a replacement of CF-18s and therefore urging Canada for the purpose, immediately after the day Pentagon emerged and threatened to pull the F-35 out of $26 billion competition from new aircraft.

The US government contradictory suggests that how Americans are giving their best to save the process which favours the European manufacturers with the expenses of the Boeing Super Hornet or the Lockheed Martin F-35.

Canadian Government

Now the Canadian government is also just few week away to launch 88 new fighter jets as a competition, while the two American first are ready to enter the competition against the Swedish Gripen and the Eurofighter Typhoon, which also includes consortium including an Airbus.

Canada’s participation in NORAD which controls the Canadian and American airspace is really ‘crucial’ according to the American government.  Joseph Crook, spokesperson for the US embassy in Ottawa said, “We continue to believe in the importance of NATO and NORAD interoperability as a crucial component of Canada’s acquisition of defence assets,”. He then added,  “hopeful that U.S. firms are able to participate in open and transparent competition processes that can support Canada’s NATO and NORAD obligations, especially when it comes to co-operative engagement capabilities.”

Letters from American Officials

On this Monday, the letters from American officials who warned their Canadian counterparts were published by Macdonald-Laurier Institute which says that the F-35 can be excluded from the competition if Canada’s needs for the industrial benefits were modified. Canada’s policy of ITB is somehow bothering American government as it requires the winner of the contract to invest equal of acquisition cost in Canada.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said on Tuesday in a meeting that, “First of all, the capabilities of the aircraft is the number one priority. Making sure we meet the needs of the Canadian Armed Forces – the Air Force in this particular case – is the number one priority. We will always make sure that will happen,” . He then added, “This obviously factors into the equation, but the capability requirements for the Canadian Armed Forces is always the number one priority,”

What Andrew Scheer said

In the latest speech laying out the foreign – affairs policy on Tuesday, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said that he from the next government the party will modernize the NORAD alliance which will include the purchase of fighter jets which will defend North America alongside the US fleet.

Mr. Scheer also said, “I will act to select a new fighter jet through an open competition and make sure the new jets are interoperable with our American allies” . Canada received US $ 1.3 billion in economic benefits with the participation with F-35 program to this point, sain in a letter last December which is from Vice-Admiral Mathias Winter of the U.S. Navy. Vice-Adm. Winter said in the letter that,  “The F-35 supplier team will submit an F-35 offer only if (1) the ITB requirement is waived entirely and (2) there is no future ITB obligation arising from selecting the F-35”.