Canada plans to buy 88 F-35 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin

Canada announced on Monday that it plans to buy 88 F-35 fighter jets from US-based Lockheed Martin to renew its aging fleet, with deliveries expected from 2025.

The F-35 “has proven to be a mature, capable and interoperable aircraft,” justified the Defense Minister, Anita Anand, at a press conference in which he alluded to the “new world reality” and the conflict in Ukraine.

“Canada It has one of the largest air spaces in the world and we must ensure that our next fleet of fighter jets is flexible, agile and capable of facing a wide spectrum of threats”, he explained.

The offer of Lockheed Martin F-35 beat the Swedish Gripen device Saabafter the Boeing-made Superhornet was excluded and a consortium led by Airbus and France’s Dassault Aviation withdrew its Typhoon and Rafale fighters, respectively, from the tender.

Ottawa had earmarked some 15 billion US dollars for the purchase and negotiations with Lockheed Martin they will now go on to finalize the contract in the next seven months, public services minister Filomena Tassi said.

Tassi added that he expects deliveries to start “as early as 2025.”

This military investment will be the largest in more than 30 years, according to a government statement.

Source: Elcomercio

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