Carney’s F-35 Dilemma
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I don’t think there’s a good way out of the F-35 for Canada…
A related problem has to do with the incestuosness of the trans-Atlantic defense industrial base. As Andrew Latham has pointed out, all of the competitors to the F-35 (including the Dassault Rafale, the Eurofighter Typhoon, and the Saab Gripen) contain US components and are subject to US export controls.
A Canada that went with the Gripen instead of the F-35 wouldn’t be quite as exposed to the vagaries of US security policy, but Ottawa would still depend on Washington for the key components and upgrades necessary to keep the fleet in the air.
Carney’s dilemma thus arrives as part of a package of problems associated with the potential disintegration of the trans-Atlantic defense industrial base. Every country in NATO is now contemplating increases in defense spending and worrying about its relationship with the United States.
Canada is more exposed than most because of its geographic position and because of Trump’s bizarre fixation with the “51st state,” but Ottawa’s problems are those of the West in microcosm. Canada has the great fortune and misfortune of living next to the United States.