Canada's fighter procurement saga is a fascinating tale of arbitrary and spiteful requirement definition. The initial pledge not to purchase the F-35 was basically a signalling of anti-Americanism, and a way to differentiate the Liberals from their Conservative predecessors, by saying the F-35 was 'the wrong airplane'. Then the Liberals got mad at Boeing over their dispute from Bombardier, so the F-18E/F were 'wrong' too.
As far as I can tell, nobody has actually defined what they want to see or get out of a Canadian fighter, and there isn't a broad vision for the Canadian armed forces either.
As far as I can tell, nobody has actually defined what they want to see or get out of a Canadian fighter, and there isn't a broad vision for the Canadian armed forces either.