Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Canadian procurement

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The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Canadian procurement is a defence procurement project of the Canadian government to purchase Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters for the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), a process started in 1997. The F-35 procurement has been a source of considerable controversy in public policy circles in Canada since the federal government announced its intention to purchase the aircraft in 2010. In April 2012, with the release of a highly critical Auditor General of Canada report on the failures of the government's F-35 program, the procurement was labelled a national "scandal" and "fiasco" by the media.^[1][2][3][4] In a December 2014 analysis of the procurement Ottawa Citizen writer Michael Den Tandt cited the Harper government's "ineptitude, piled upon ineptitude, and bureaucracy, and inertia, driving a lack of progress".^[5]

The F-35 was conceived by the United States Department of Defense as requiring participation from many countries, either contributing to the manufacturing of the aircraft or procuring it for their own armed forces. Canada, through the Department of National Defence (DND) and the departments of Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) and Industry Canada (IC), has been actively involved in the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) project since 1997. Canada's initial participation required a US$10 million investment to be an "informed partner" during the evaluation process. Once Lockheed Martin was selected as the JSF's primary contractor, Canada elected to become a level-three participant (along with Norway, Denmark, Turkey, and Australia) in the project. An additional US$100 million from DND over 10 years and another $50 million from IC were dedicated in 2002.^[6][7]

On 16 July 2010, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government announced that it intended to procure 65 F-35s to replace the existing 80 McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornets for C$9 billion (C$16 billion with all ancillary costs, such as maintenance, included) with deliveries planned for 2016.^[8] Former Minister of National Defence, Peter MacKay, argued that these ancillary cost estimates were grossly exaggerated because they included the pilots salaries, and fuel for the aircraft, which were never before factored into procurement costs.^[8] The stated intention was to sign a sole-sourced, untendered contract with Lockheed Martin. This, combined with the government's refusal to provide detailed costing of the procurement, became one of the major causes of the finding of contempt of Parliament and the subsequent defeat of the Conservative government through a non-confidence vote on 25 March 2011. The F-35 purchase was a major issue in the Canadian 2011 federal election, which resulted in a Conservative majority government.^{[9][10][11][12]}

The F-35 did not feature in the Harper government's federal budget tabled in March 2012 and was not mentioned in the Conservative Party 2015 election platform.^[13]

On 19 October 2015, the Liberal Party of Canada under Justin Trudeau won a majority in part on a campaign promise to not buy the F-35, but instead "one of the many, lower-priced options that better match Canada's defence needs".^[14][15]

A formal competition was launched to select a new fighter, which included the F-35. On 28 March 2022, the government announced that the competition process had selected the F-35A and that negotiations would begin with Lockheed Martin to purchase 88 aircraft.^[16] By 20 December 2022, the Department of National Defence received approval to spend $7 billion on 16 F-35As and related equipment, including training systems, potential weapons and support infrastructure.^[17][18][19]