Canada to pick between Swedish and U.S. radar planes to protect its skies

Aren't the engines and avionics on the GlobalEye US export controlled?

I know you wanted a radar plane, but a book shelf made of airplane parts sounds pretty awesome too.

Uh, my point is if Canada is seeking trade partners outside the US than they're decoupling. It's not a demonstration and empty words like you suggested.

They’re not seriously thinking about how to defeat an American invasion using conventional military assets - that’s just not possible, nor likely to occur. They’re looking at making deliberate moves to buy outside of the American defence industry because it sends a message to the US and stops Canada from being so reliant on what the US will or won’t provide them in terms of after sales support and updates etc. Where nations spend their defence dollars says a lot about the value of the relationships they have with those other nations. The UK, as you might expect, straddles the line and buy/ sells to all the major western players like France, Germany, Spain, Canada and the USA. Canada has traditionally had a very US-influenced defence industry. France has traditionally had a very European focus for their sales and purchases. Germany is very self-sufficient thanks to its large economy, but nonetheless has absorbed a sizeable amount of US influence thanks to the Cold War arrangements. These things are starting to change now, and the defence markets are beginning to harden on who they do and don’t want to buy from/ sell to.

Every F-35 Lightning II delivered worldwide contains more than US $2.3 million in Canadian-made components. Over 110 Canadian companies contribute to the supply chain, with roughly 30 key contractors, such as Magellan Aerospace and Stelia Aerospace, producing parts like landing gear components edit: If I was Canadian, I would still think long & hard about purchasing from the US, maybe in 2 years things would go back to somewhat normalcy in the US what ever that looks like after this shitshow.

My reading of the Airborne Early Warning & Control Defence Capabilities Blueprint as provided by the RCAF says to me they are leaning towards the Boeing E-7, specifically for that command & control functionality: [https://apps.forces.gc.ca/en/defence-capabilities-blueprint/project-details.asp?id=2318](https://apps.forces.gc.ca/en/defence-capabilities-blueprint/project-details.asp?id=2318) >The project will include the procurement and sustainment of an **AEWC aircraft fleet to provide an airborne C4ISR capability with integral systems that include: multi-role radar capable of air and sea surveillance, and fighter control; passive sensors capable of detecting air and surface contacts; and full mission crew compartment in order to conduct autonomous joint command and control, battle management, and wide area surveillance missions.** Based on the operational requirements, expected serviceability rates, and life-cycle-management activities, it is estimated that a fleet size of 6 aircraft is required. As a new capability to the CAF, the AEWC project includes significant investments in infrastructure for operations from a single MOB. This infrastructure will likely include: Aircraft hangars; a squadron facility; a mission support centre; security infrastructure to meet level 3 processing; training and simulation facilities; logistic support facilities; fuel storage; and base housing facilities for additional personnel. That specific requirement seems to almost eliminate the business jet sized aircraft from consideration; they are too small to carry a full command staff for autonomous operations and battle management. Whilst it is possible that you could make due with a small business jet sized aircraft and have the command staff on the ground, it would require significant radio and data link back haul and bandwidth to make it work, and that might a challenge in certain areas.

Thanks for this detailed explanation, I appreciate the insight. I keep learning.