Canada looks to delay tricky F-35 decision by buying Super Hornets

While campaigning for office, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised that his government would never buy the controversial, increasingly expensive F-35 Joint Strike Fighter for his country's air force. That declaration came despite the previous administration's commitment to purchase 65 of those planes from Lockheed Martin. Now, however, it appears Trudeau's government has found a way to fulfill his campaign promise and avoid any potential legal headaches that would result from Canada dropping its commitment with Lockheed. Trudeau's solution? Buy more fighters from Boeing now, delay an F-35 decision 'til later.

At last week's CANSEC defense trade show in Ottawa, Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said that the Canadian Air Force's aging CF-18 Hornet fighter fleet would present a "growing capability gap" over the next decade that would make it difficult for Canada to meet its commitment to NATO. "This I find unacceptable, and it's one thing that we plan to fix," Sajjan said.

And as Defense News reports, the fix Sajjan and the Trudeau government will implement was proposed by Boeing. Instead of waiting for the F-35 to become available, Canada would buy a new version of Boeing's F/A-18 Super Hornet—and thus push the need to make a decision on an F-35 purchase into the late 2020s. The "interim" acquisition plan was reportedly presented to the Canadian government by Boeing with a very warm reception.

Canada's government committed to purchasing the F-35 as its exclusive replacement for the CF-18 in 2010. But the delays and cost overruns since then gave Boeing an opening, and the company's executives have proposed various sales of the Super Hornet to Canadian officials over the past four years. Boeing has pointed out that in 2014 a fleet of 65 Super Hornets would cost Canada $1.7 billion (£1.2 billion) less than the proposed F-35 purchase.

Boeing made the same pitch successfully to the Australian government, which moved to purchase more Super Hornets (primarily the F/A-18F two-seater variant) for the Royal Australian Air Force because of F-35 program delays. Australia ultimately ordered 24 more F/A-18s in 2015 along with 12 new EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft. Australia originally purchased the Super Hornet in 2007 to replace the RAAF's 1970s-era F-111 Aardvarks (which are still being used as strategic strike aircraft today).

The Super Hornet has had extensive modifications over the previous generation of the aircraft, which currently is the workhorse of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). Work has particularly been done to reduce the vehicle's radar cross-section. While it's not a "stealth" fighter like the F-22 or F-35, its front and rear radar cross-section are dramatically smaller from other current generation fighter aircraft, and it also carries more extensive electronics countermeasures. The Super Hornet also has the advantage of sharing about 90 percent of its avionics with the Hornet—so there will be little retraining required for the RCAF's pilots.