Canada announced Wednesday that it will purchase a fleet of early warning aircraft from Sweden’s Saab instead of choosing a rival bid from Boeing, as part of its effort to lessen dependence on U.S. defence contractors.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said the country will acquire Saab’s GlobalEye system, built on Bombardier’s Global 6500 jet platform. Boeing’s E-7 Wedgetail aircraft, which has faced delays and rising costs, was also under consideration.
“With a suite of advanced sensors and mission systems, Saab’s GlobalEye will be a key resource for the Canadian Armed Forces to detect and deter threats across the Arctic,” Carney told a defence conference in Ottawa.
Arctic Security and Canada’s Defence Shift
The Prime Minister pledged in March that Canada would take full responsibility for protecting its vast Arctic territory, after relying on decades on a partnership with the U.S. to monitor its more than 4.4 million square km (1.7 million square miles) of land and sea, a territory larger than India.
Carney’s Liberal government last year announced plans to ramp up defense spending. The United States and other allies had complained for years Canada was not meeting long-standing NATO targets on military expenditure; Carney announced in March Canada hit that target of spending 2% of its GDP on defense last year.
In a statement, Saab said it planned to invest in research and development work in Canada as part of any deal.
Questions Remain Over Canada’s Fighter Jet Plans
The future of Boeing’s E-7 plane was put in doubt last year when its biggest customer, the Pentagon, scrapped plans to buy 26 E-7s to replace Cold War-era aircraft, and instead relied on satellites. Under pressure from US lawmakers, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a Congressional subcommittee on May 12 that the Pentagon is pushing to add the plane back into the defense budget.
Although Carney did not give details of the planned fleet size of the Saab GlobalEye planes or the cost of a potential contract, military officials had earlier said they were looking to buy six early warning aircraft.
Philippe Lagasse, associate director of international affairs at Ottawa’s Carleton University, said Canada’s decision to buy the GlobalEye planes was “an important test case for the Carney government’s policy of pivoting away from American military capability.”
He said in a statement that the decision confirms Canada’s relationship with Sweden, a new NATO ally that has also been keen to strengthen its ties to the Canadian military.
Canada has previously said it is eager to work more closely with the Nordic countries in the Arctic on defense and other issues, in a global environment where the U.S. has become a less reliable partner.
Canada has a deal to buy 88 F-35 jets from Lockheed-Martin but last year, after the United States slapped tariffs on key Canadian imports, Carney asked the military to probe whether it could cut back the order and buy some planes from another manufacturer.
Carney later told reporters Ottawa would make a decision on the fighter fleet in due course and declined to comment when asked whether the military would be operating two jets.
Last week a Pentagon official, speaking after Washington suspended planned biannual defense talks with Canada, said the delay in making a decision on the F-35s showed how Ottawa was prioritizing politics over defense issues.
Still, Lagasse of Carleton University said he expected Canada would ultimately decide to stick with a fleet of F-35 jets rather than splitting the fleet by buying some Saab Gripens.
(With inputs from Reuters)
