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Discussion (403 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

nlabout 8 hours ago
The Saab GlobalEye is based on the Bombardier Global 6500 airframe. Bombardier Aviation is a Canadian company.

For those who aren't aware, the Boeing E7 is yet-another-delayed-Boeing project.

The UK has bought it but it has been continually delayed: https://breakingdefense.com/2026/03/uk-defense-official-boei...

Australia flies it (an earlier version) but today announced they are also buying three Bombardier Global 6500: https://www.australiandefence.com.au/news/news/bombardier-de...

ThePowerOfFuetabout 3 hours ago
>Bombardier Aviation is a Canadian company.

Was. They are now part of Airbus, much like Bombardier Transport is now part of Alstom.

zgniataczabout 3 hours ago
that is not true. Business jets are not part of divestiture to Airbus. Cseries was sold to Airbus.
bluegattyabout 13 hours ago
This is actually more likely a non-political procurement decision that looks like a political one.

This is the 'right size' for Canada and other nations - the US doesn't offer a true comparable, and, looks like the US balked at buying the 'kind of comparable' Boeing E7 putting it in jeopardy.

With European military renaissance and the SAAB gear proving itself in Ukraine ... well, you see the shift.

This is the shift writ large.

This is going to happen across all industries.

I don't think it's going to 'fundamentally' alter the landscape, but it will be a shift we don't come back from.

adjejmxbdjdnabout 13 hours ago
In the past countries would buy American equipment even if it wasn’t the best fit because that would make you essentially an American ally. Being part of the U.S. ecosystem was valuable.

Unfortunately, over the last 1.5 years, the political value proposition has turned by 180 degrees. - Being a U.S. ally no longer guarantees that you will be protected by the U.S. as Ukraine is seeing. But the U.S. has been tearing agreements left and right and the President has openly said he may not respond to a valid Article 5 invocation.

- Being a U.S. ally seems to bring even more threats from the U.S. as Canada and Europe are seeing

- Being a U.S. ally is no guarantee of protection even if you literally host American bases like the gulf countries are seeing. In fact, it’s only made them a target and the U.S. prioritized protecting Israel entirely over protecting any of the Gulf states.

The value proposition for buying U.S. weapons has become really bad at this point.

bawolffabout 3 hours ago
> Being a U.S. ally is no guarantee of protection even if you literally host American bases like the gulf countries are seeing. In fact, it’s only made them a target and the U.S. prioritized protecting Israel entirely over protecting any of the Gulf states.

I think that is a little oversimplified. America did spend resources on defense of gulf states. They might feel it wasn't enough but it definitely wasn't nothing. I imagine defending Israel was probably a fair bit easier given the distance from Iran, and their domestic military being a lot more prepared and practised for missile defense, which may have translated to more effective results. Ultimately though i think there is a limit to how much America can reasonable do on defense once something like that starts.

Probably the thing gulf states could most reasonably be pissed about was starting the whole adventure in the first place without much regard for the fairly predictable consequences.

GJimabout 3 hours ago
> America did spend resources on defense of gulf states.

No offence mate, but did you miss the bit about the USA starting the war?

ifwintercoabout 4 hours ago
This is 100% true and I agree with all of it, but I would just add that for fighter jets specifically the calculus is a bit different.

Unless you want to buy Chinese jets your choices are either F35s or a big step down to 4th generation fighters that are materially worse in terms of capability.

Modern 4th gen fighters are still very capable, cheaper, simpler and more reliable, but if you ever do end up facing an adversary who has 5th gen fighters you'll be in trouble, so the trade off of choosing not to buy F35s is very real

flakeoilabout 3 hours ago
But if you can have more 4th gen aircrafts and have easier support and maintenance so that you can keep them flying, then that might more than outweigh the 5th gen aircrafts possible superiority.

A 5th gen aircraft on the ground is not very useful. It's easier to bomb out 100 aircraft than 400 aircraft. A 5th gen aircraft, disabled remotely via software is not very useful.

lostloginabout 2 hours ago
> so the trade off of choosing not to buy F35s is very real

Amazing planes and all, but given that America is struggling to win the wars it starts, how useful are they?

benj11144 minutes ago
Given the state of missile tech, is that as relevant anymore? If you strap a missile on to a Cessna that can take down a 5th gen fighter before it knows you're there. Doesn't really matter what fancy doodads the latest and greatest jet has.

Further if your 5th gen jets are relying on tech from your adversary....

0xDEAFBEADabout 4 hours ago
>Being a U.S. ally no longer guarantees that you will be protected by the U.S. as Ukraine is seeing.

The US never promised to protect Ukraine. It's often claimed that the Budapest Memorandum was a promise from the US to protect Ukraine, but this is misinformation. Read the memorandum for yourself if you don't believe me, it's not very long:

https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%203007/P...

bawolffabout 3 hours ago
I don't think that is really relavent. Ukraine was essentially invaded because they became too friendly with NATO (and hence america). Even without a formal promise, other countries are going to notice america hanging ukraine out to dry and add that to their calculations when deciding who to be buddy-buddy with.
otherme123about 2 hours ago
Point 1: "The Russian Federation., the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America reaffirm their commitment to Ukraine, in accordance with the principles of the CSCE Final Act, to respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine"

Point 4 of the Memorandum: "The Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America reaffirm their commitment to seek immediate United Nations Security Council action to provide assistance to Ukraine, as a non-nuclear-weapon state party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, if Ukraine should become a victim of an act of aggression or an object of a threat of aggression in which nuclear weapons are used."

US actions in the UN: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c7435pnle0go "The US has twice sided with Russia in votes at the United Nations to mark the third anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, highlighting the Trump administration's change of stance on the war.

First, the US opposed a European-drafted resolution condemning Moscow's actions and supporting Ukraine's territorial integrity - voting the same way as Russia and countries including North Korea and Belarus at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.

Then the US drafted and voted for a resolution at the UN Security Council which called for an end to the conflict, but contained no criticism of Russia."

The US has almost nothing to do (vote in the UN against Russia aggression), and yet did less than that. They can hide behind technicalities, but the truth is that Trump is acting like a Putin asset. For decades there has been a political fight in eastern Europe where the US projected power supporting governments that sympathized with western countries (enter NATO, enter UE, enter western markets, welcome western industries). US was winning the fight without shooting a bullet until Trump.

US has no official treaty with Israel (except the 10 year rolling aid), yet we would be shocked if suddenly an US government turn to support Israel neighbors and vote against them in the UN.

oneshteinabout 2 hours ago
garanties de sécurité
PearlRiverabout 9 hours ago
I am getting the feeling that Americans don't understand that words have meaning. Trump insulting, threatening and bullying everones is supposed to be one big joke.

But we are talking about sovereign states here that have been around for centuries- they are neither amused nor cowed.

noir_lordabout 5 hours ago
They don’t seem to get that Trump while a huge problem for us is a symptom of the actual problem, which is “all the conditions that put Trump in the White House will still exist when Trump is no longer in the White House”.

Simply put, they did it twice, who’s to say Trump 2.0 won’t be worse.

This whole “Democrats will take the house and it’s back to normal” attitude they have when it applies to foreign politics is naïve, oh we’ll continue to trade and we may still buy some military stuff and so on but that’s simply because the US is so large and integrated that decoupling isn’t quick or entirely necessary/possible immediately.

The paths pretty clear at this point, it’s just early enough that it hasn’t become widely obvious that the existing world order since post WWII is gone.

bluegattyabout 12 hours ago
So I don't think 'buying US gear made you an ally' - it was just part of the package, and in some cases, the US would 'require allies' to buy.

The US Ambassador to Canada is openly threatening Carney right now with some procurement things - the 'Big One' is the F35.

This is Can PM Carney playing a decent card, and biding for time until the midterms, and then waiting out the 'lame duck' period.

'Border State Republicans' are badly upset with the anti-Canada situation, and will buck Trump if given the chance without massive repercussions.

Trump may not force the issue if he knows he's going to lose.

If we see Trump with conciliatory language towards Canada after the elections, it's because he knows he's been beat. Or if he just shuts up about it and let's the negotiations roll.

I give it 50/50.

But - to be very clear - the world is 'doing 1 nudge' away from the US - not 'breaking away'.

bigfudgeabout 12 hours ago
I think this is complacent. The rest of the world is actively seeking opportunities to decouple. The US is so embedded in defence ecosystems at the moment that is a delicate balance because we are all still dependent on US space and logistics capabilities. But Ukraine and Eastern Europe and building the foundation for conventional forces to be supplied without the US, and although it will take longer, Sweden France and Uk have the aerospace chops to reduce dependency on the US too.

We are unlikely to reach parity any time soon, if at all. But that isn’t needed for the goal to be worthwhile.

patconabout 5 hours ago
Sorry, but I also think you are complacent. This is generational destruction of reputation.

As a Canadian, we regularly talk about "fuck American companies" in a way we never did. I still actively avoid buying anything from USA in grocery stores. City of Toronto is spinning up a nonprofit grocery store pilot, and they sure as hell are going to be trying not to stock USA goods -- the mayor herself passed an anti-USA procurement bylaw last year. Related: I just helped run a weekly community speaker series[1], where we had 60 ppl (many public servants) signed up to hear a presentation on a supply chain app to help people avoid American products.

And just 30 min ago, coming home at 1am, I was talking to the service guy for my city's bikeshare program. He mentioned new bike models were coming. He was like "fuck Lyft" and I said "I don't trust American companies anymore" and he agreed (Lyft acquired the Montreal bikeshare company we used to deal with). A friend who used to work for Deloitte is actively working to convince city officials to sever the bikeshare contract, and diversify the network for similar reasons.

PRAGMATIC anti-americanism is literally a new hobby for a sizable cohort of the citizenry. It's the only rational choice, and many perceive it as literally a matter of sovereign survival.

[1]: https://guild.host/events/from-tariffs-to-transparency-x69sg...

_carbyau_about 11 hours ago
> Trump may not force the issue if he knows he's going to lose.

That didn't play out at the end of his last term. I don't think Trump is a "I've had a good run, lets call it a day." kinda guy...

brightballabout 11 hours ago
> Being a U.S. ally no longer guarantees that you will be protected by the U.S. as Ukraine is seeing.

How much more is the US supposed to do in Ukraine beyond the $60-70 billion in weapons and supplies? Do we need to actually go to war with Russia?

marcus_holmesabout 8 hours ago
> Do we need to actually go to war with Russia?

Yes. That's what everyone signed up to [0] when Ukraine gave up its Soviet-era nukes.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Memorandum

lux-lux-luxabout 11 hours ago
New Ukraine aid effectively ended with the current administration, if you were unaware
jleyankabout 9 hours ago
What’s the word of the us on a treaty worth?
watwutabout 5 hours ago
It is supposed to deliver arms European countries literally paid for.

Second, USA should not negotiate for Russia nor help them. They are doing both.

sobellianabout 11 hours ago
Ukraine is still fighting. We don't need to send troops. We just need to keep sending weapons (Trump stopped this)
digitaltreesabout 8 hours ago
How about $600 billion. Since when did the US say we are just going to let russia win because we don’t want to spend the money? What happened to “These colors don’t run” republicans? Oh wait it was BS all along. Got it.
lostloginabout 2 hours ago
> I don't think it's going to 'fundamentally' alter the landscape, but it will be a shift we don't come back from.

That sounds like a fundamental change.

lysaceabout 12 hours ago
> With European military renaissance and the SAAB gear proving itself in Ukraine

Btw, we just got this news report here in Sweden:

Sweden is giving Gripen jets to Ukraine

https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/vr3znL/uppgift-sverige-...

Aftonbladet is Sweden's largest daily newspaper. They have a fairly strong track record on government and defense scoops.

The supposed announcement is tomorrow morning, local/CEST.

bluegattyabout 12 hours ago
They are not likely 'giving' , Sweden just got $90B in locked up Russian money and those 'freebies' are going to come along with a major purchase order.
lysaceabout 12 hours ago
Unfortunately the EU still hasn't gotten the balls to confiscate that frozen oligarchy money, so no. Just wait, though. Soon you will cry. ;)
mmoossabout 9 hours ago
As the OP says, Carney has a clear, explicit policy of reducing military (and also economic) dependence on the US, for obvious reasons. It's what Carney is best known for, his leading international affairs and economic policies.

Every time a similar story, of a country turning away from US trade, is posted HN, people post that it's not political. Not only is that claim thin and largely unsbustantiated, but why is it such a focus?

isodevabout 6 hours ago
> likely a non-political procurement

How can this be true - the only reason humans still need military equipment of any sort is politics.

We are not fighting aliens, just stupid politicians that suddenly choose to throw people at a problem instead of using words.

hnburnsyabout 16 hours ago
Boeing and Airbus have tremendous backlogs...

>As of March 31st, 2026, Airbus reported a commercial aircraft backlog of 9,031 aircraft. Based on the company’s 2026 delivery target of 870 aircraft, this represents approximately 10.4 years of production coverage.

>Boeing’s commercial backlog stood at approximately 6,719 aircraft at the end of March. Using Forecast International’s production estimates, Boeing’s backlog equates to roughly 10.1 years of production coverage.

https://flightplan.forecastinternational.com/2026/04/14/airb...

manquerabout 6 hours ago
>Airbus reported a commercial aircraft backlog of 9,031

> 10.4 years of production coverage

Kinda true, airlines and manufacturers like to do big order announcements/deals for their future needs of few years all upfront. If Airbus suddenly delivered all 9k aircraft most airlines simply cannot afford it, or take possession and use them even.

For example Indigo is Airbus only operator with a fleet of 450 today and has around 920 more Airbus aircraft (10% of the book) on order. Neither Indigo or Indian aviation sector( of which Indigo is 60%) can triple the capacity today . India need serious upgrades (Terminals, Runways, Gates, new airports) coming online and also demand maturing, i.e. more people can afford to fly for that kind of volume to make sense which even the best scenario will happen over the next decade.

For more mature/slow growing airlines it is function of existing fleet age and the optimal point each aircraft is retired/sold , doing it too early will make them unprofitable .

It is a less a backlog and more their next 10 years of committed sales.

P.S. There is whole other industry aspect around Buy-Sell-and-leaseback financial engineering that can drive order volumes a bit. The backlog/order book also have commodity futures aspects.

mpolabout 15 hours ago
Those are facts.

They do not mean that the people who ordered them today are wanting them today. If you need them in 10 years time, you need to order them today. It can easily change, if a flight company doesnt want to do business with Boeing or Airbus, they can cancel their pre-orders. Then the pre-order list might shrink really fast.

Zigurdabout 15 hours ago
Indeed. Backlogs can evaporate. Can you imagine anyone taking delivery of a newly built 737 in 10 years? 7 years? Theoretically, that's part of the backlog.
mh-about 13 hours ago
> Can you imagine anyone taking delivery of a newly built 737 in 10 years?

..yes? Companies are still placing orders, despite knowing how long the backlog is. I also expect the 737s will still be sold in 20+ years time, much less 7-10.

karamanolevabout 14 hours ago
Why not taking delivery of a current plane in 7 years? What do you think the development, testing, certification and production scaling timeline is of a brand new airframe?
advisedwangabout 14 hours ago
Do military versions of aircraft use the same production lines, and the same production queue, as commercial aircraft?
balderdashabout 12 hours ago
As I recall they do - with many being delivered “green” to the integration upfittet but I think the 737’s for the p-8 is actually assembled separately just for the military
nradovabout 12 hours ago
It's not just the final production line that matters, but the whole supply chain. Boeing frequently has new airframes sitting and waiting for parts from suppliers.
sleepyguyabout 11 hours ago
What does a commercial backlog have to do with an aircraft for military purposes? I'm sure there is a different lane for military aircraft. Anyone ordering an aircraft for military purposes is not going to sit on the same waiting list as a commercial airline.

Canada is aligning itself with it's European Allies. Several EU NATO members have chosen the same aircraft over Boeing.

Waterluvianabout 13 hours ago
I feel a deep sense of pride and hope, palpably in my chest, when I get a week of news about how we're developing much closer ties with our European allies and divesting ourselves of the abusive American relationship.

Carney's Davos speech was powerful, but those words needed to be followed by actions, which I think we are seeing. I'm used to being so disappointed by politicians.

hermitcrababout 15 hours ago
In related news:

https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/05/21/italy-moves-to...

I guess insulting and threatening your allies isn't great for arms sales.

felooboolooombaabout 13 hours ago
If people want to grasp the view of US in Europe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8qSZO4jvTI

(You can watch just the first minute to get the gist)

golem14about 11 hours ago
And speech was from 1yr ago. The view has probably not improved since ?
Fordecabout 10 hours ago
Here's a video from this year from a French General that is more up to date on the current vibes https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XQJ5YEsNQws

And for some more data than anecdote, the current polling where the US is now 14 points behind China in net approval. https://news.gallup.com/poll/707945/china-edges-past-global-...

hermitcrababout 13 hours ago
Hadn't seen that before. Bloody marvellous.
xatttabout 17 hours ago
It helps that the base plane is built in Canada, and that the PM made commitments to the Swedish king in November 2025.
kspacewalk2about 16 hours ago
Worth noting that the base plane for one of the US-based contenders, the Aeris X by L3Harris, would also be the same Bombardier Global 6500 business jet.
rozababout 15 hours ago
That one has the disadvantage of not yet existing, although South Korea has ordered
866-RON-0-FEZabout 16 hours ago
Or, consider that the smaller Saab better fits the mission profile for Canada, and may be cheaper to operate, all the while The Guardian is furiously beating off trying to turn this into a bigger story than it really is.
xethosabout 16 hours ago
Cheaper to operate and mission-fit (debatable) is one thing, but the real question is: "Would this have happened without the US president's antics?"
jleyankabout 15 hours ago
Unfortunately, there is nothing in the US system (as far as I can see) that prevents Trump-like behaviour being the new standard. There were three supposedly independent, contentious branches of Government. One is inert (legislature), one enabled Trump (SCOTUS) and the third, of course, is Trump. I am unaware of any mechanism that can change things.
munk-aabout 15 hours ago
Without the second election of Trump? It's likely. Canada's aircraft industry got majorly burned by the US in 2017 during his first administration and Biden didn't significantly reverse the impact in any way.
lysaceabout 15 hours ago
Obviously not. Canada would gladly have kept paying 2x market prices just to stay in the good graces of the US, with a presumption of 'free' defense in exchange for paying so much.

This era is over. US defense companies now need to compete for real.

gchokovabout 3 hours ago
The world is slowly moving away from the US. It's interesting because this administration main goal was to MAGA.. but it happened quite the opposite thing. It turns out, the world doesn't need much of the US products and services.
GJimabout 3 hours ago
Here is some hard data to back that up; the Country Perceptions Index.

https://www.niradata.com/country-perceptions

Imustaskforhelpabout 1 hour ago
This was interesting but it seems that it requires me to access to properly see the data of all countries (which requires me to contact them basically and perhaps be a business, not sure)

I would find it interesting if you can share with me hopefully a less restrictive chart than this. The data does seem interesting to me.

GJim40 minutes ago
Here you go.

https://www.niradata.com/global-country-perceptions-2026

(From the above, following the link to free sample for USA data is very revealing. )

tialaramexabout 3 hours ago
The key word is "again". This was a nostalgia play, America was a big deal fifty years ago, therefore just wind back to fifty years ago and we're "Great Again".

This play seems insane because Time's Arrow points only one way, but it succeeded (in the sense that people supported it) because it's predicated on Facts Aren't True. It doesn't matter that Time's Arrow points future-ward, that's just a Fact not a Truth so we can just disagree.

Facts Aren't True can actually work for stuff where all you're doing is messing with people. Your Courts are just people and they can reject observable reality and substitute your own Truth with the Kavanaugh Stop, a week in jail becomes "brief" and your skin colour becomes "reasonable suspicion" for example. Your executives can pay themselves huge bonuses for imaginary success while concretely the company fails and eventually collapses. Stock markets can soar as the real economy they're "reflecting" buckles and fails.

"Facts Aren't True" is a stupid choice because unlike the people, Mother Nature doesn't give a shit about your Truth. So America won't actually become Great Again, but it is able to delude itself about this at a cost to its standing in the world and to its own future.

MagicMoonlightabout 2 hours ago
What are you talking about? The US is something like 70% of global company value. The whole world revolves around it.
GJim33 minutes ago
Your comment can be summed up by appearing to know the price of everything, and the value of nothing.
jerlamabout 17 hours ago
The US doesn't even use the Wedgetail, and has cancelled and then un-cancelled it:

https://aerospaceglobalnews.com/news/pentagon-e-7-wedgetail-...

e40about 15 hours ago
Over the last few months we've seen announcements of shifts from US-based supply chains to non-US-supply chains. As an American, I think this is prudent, based on what has happened in the last year and change. The US is no longer a reliable partner and this is what you do when that happens.

100 years from now, the last 15 months will be written about in no uncertain terms: this administration has loaded many footguns and pulled the trigger, over ideologies which are just plain stupid. "America First" indeed. Soft power is power. "Forever" wars are wars we shouldn't be in. Retribution by POTUS acting like a 5 year old is disgusting no matter what party that person came from.

It will take decades to recover from what has and will happen during this administration's run. Let's hope the power they have ends in November 2026 and not Nov 2028.

felooboolooombaabout 13 hours ago
> no longer a reliable partner

That's putting it mildly. Threatening to invade allies justifies stronger words.

throwaway85825about 15 hours ago
Look around you. What products do you own with a US supply chain and what has a Chinese supply chain.
switchbakabout 14 hours ago
How exactly is that related to their point about nations moving to alternative supply chains away from US based ones? They're saying the administrations actions are counterproductive, and driving away both money and influence from their allies.

And yes, most consumer goods from everywhere come from a Chinese supply chain ... but we're not talking about consumer goods here. We're talking in this case about military purchases. There aren't many western countries buying military hardware from China.

vitally3643about 15 hours ago
Do you have a point?

Saying that products with US based supply chains are rare does not somehow detract from the point of moving away from the ones that still exist.

And they do exist, just not for consumers, or at least not at a price most people are willing to pay.

throwaway85825about 14 hours ago
The point is that focusing on a rare us supply chain obscures the bigger picture.
golem14about 11 hours ago
Maybe the insanely expensive ($400 +, for no good reason) kitchen mixers?

Though, one can buy inexpensive chinese ones if one knows where to look.

e40about 15 hours ago
Supply chains are not just components, but things like military planes. See referenced article.
jleyankabout 15 hours ago
Guess the people writing on HN here don't have Mac's, iPhones or iPads or use whatever the watches are called.
throwaway85825about 12 hours ago
The supply chain for apple products is almost entirely Chinese. From BOE displays to PCBs and passive. Then assembled in China.
SecretDreamsabout 14 hours ago
The supply chain of relevance is the critical software, infrastructure to run it, and ability to remotely kill it if an ally stops being an ally.

Nobody cares if their dollar store trinket was made overseas. And nobody would buy it if it was made in America because that same trinket would cost 5x.

People barely even care about their privacy these days, it seems.

But governments still seem to care about their military independence in the rare event they are at odds with an ally.

ge96about 16 hours ago
Bring back the Arrow
stackghostabout 8 hours ago
The Arrow would be a terrible, terrible aircraft for today's world.

It was built to shoot down Soviet bombers coming over the North Pole. It could not perform air superiority missions because it was too big to be agile. It could maybe be a strike fighter, but generally its reputation overstates just how good it would have actually been.

lwansbroughabout 12 hours ago
Something new please. We should be looking forward not pining for what could have been.

The future of air superiority, particularly with respect to sovereign defence is passive or quantum radar, autonomous A2/AD and directed energy.

8noteabout 10 hours ago
we can still call it an arrow though

or a whole series of arrows

khrissabout 16 hours ago
I can understand why this change happened. Even if American equipment is superior, there is a lot of value to not depending on a supposed 'ally' which

* Arbitrarily slapped high tariffs on all goods from Canada while exempting Russia and Belarus.

* Threatened to take over the country by force.

* Officially suspended the Permanent Joint Board on Defense between US and Canada because of criticism of US foreign policy by the Canadian PM

adjejmxbdjdnabout 13 hours ago
From a very practical PoV, the only military threat to Canada is from the U.S.

Even if the U.S. and Canada are enemies, if Canada is being attacked by a country that is not the U.S., then the U.S. will come to its defense because they don’t want another nation with the capability to attack Canada to have a North American presence.

So given that the U.S. is the only possible military threat to the U.S., and now that the U.S. has openly threatened Canada, it’s incredibly silly to buy weaponry from the only country that could militarily attack you and almost certainly won’t share repair material, parts, software source etc. and possibly has a kill switch.

detourdogabout 12 hours ago
The Gripen is also a very practical design and much simpler to support. Canada can host the data locally as opposed to in the USA. The F-35 is very sophisticated and but maybe to a fault. I'm reminded of how technically superior Germany's vehicles were in WW2. The simplicity and field serviceability the USA vehicles had made a difference in combat.
jandrewrogersabout 8 hours ago
If the US decided to attack Canada then having Swedish 4th generation fighters instead of US 5th generation fighters will make literally no difference in the outcome. This isn't a serious calculus.
ojlabout 6 hours ago
The Gripen E is 4.5 gen, and I am not sure having US fighters in a war against US would be so much better.
8noteabout 10 hours ago
its currently doubtful that the US would come to canada's defense

maybe offer some targetting intelligence, but most likely the US government would look to sell out canada for peanuts, the same as trump has been looking for with ukraine, and now taiwan

chaostheoryabout 9 hours ago
Russia is the other threat, but yes the US is the greater threat now
daneel_wabout 15 hours ago
> "Even if American equipment is superior ..."

To address the article's context, is the E-3 Sentry superior to the Erieye/GlobalEye?

bigfatkittenabout 15 hours ago
The E-3 is a dinosaur.

The E-7 Wedgetail is a vastly more capable platform than the Erieye/GlobalEye in pretty much every way, but costs four times as much, and there are other issues with Canada and Boeing as have been pointed out by another commenter.

nradovabout 14 hours ago
Delivery schedules are also likely a factor. Assuming the USAF actually orders the E-7, they'll probably get first priority on the Boeing production line. Any export orders would have to wait.
stackghostabout 14 hours ago
>The E-7 Wedgetail is a vastly more capable platform than the Erieye/GlobalEye in pretty much every way

The airframe itself, perhaps. As for the radar, that remains to be seen. The E-7 uses an L-band AESA radar, whereas the GlobalEye's radar operates in the higher-frequency S-band. In general, higher frequencies are better for engaging smaller/faster targets, but perform worse in adverse weather conditions.

It's been a long time since I took my electronic warfare courses, but in a situation where the radar is expected to spot small drones and other targets I would prefer a higher frequency radar.

It should be noted that the US military itself didn't want the Wedgetail in favor of a space-based solution, until Hegseth forced them for publicity reasons.

nickffabout 15 hours ago
The comparable aircraft is the more modern E-7 Wedgetail, which has many features that are superior for Canada's use case (notably including range and NORAD integration). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_E-7_Wedgetail

Canada has unfortunately been in conflict with Boeing since before either of Trump's terms, originally triggered by Boeing's trade complaints regarding Bombardier's government subsidies.

8noteabout 10 hours ago
is norad integration actually important?

norad might not exist in 5-10 years

munk-aabout 16 hours ago
> Even if American equipment is superior

I'd mention that whether a piece of tech can beat another one on one is a consideration but a larger concern is how maintainable your fleet is. Canada is specifically moving to grow ties with the EU (and has joined their defense industry network) which really incentivizes having a fleet that is a similar makeup to other European countries.

The tariffs and international unpredictability of the US is one motivator - but growing closer to EU markets is also a specific focus of the Carney government. The current Trump administration isn't even the only rationale for this - in 2017 the US imposed extremely heavy tariffs on Bombardier that bankrupted the majority of the corporation.

jleyankabout 15 hours ago
They also make the underlying bird, so parts aside from the electronics are native.
bluegattyabout 12 hours ago
There are a ton of considerations, starting with 'Doctrine', then tactics, other equipment, integration, other kinds of dependencies. So many things.

Often there are acute, specific needs, aka Canada has to land these all the time in the arctic, you need bigger hangars for the bigger gear, maybe we need 'more units for wider coverage' over large land mass.

Some gear is better v Russians, some gear for China threat.

Etc. Etc.

pfannkuchenabout 13 hours ago
> while exempting Russia and Belarus

I thought they were sanctioned to hell and back. Do tariffs even apply as a concept?

greenleafone7about 12 hours ago
Vastly inferior and overpriced. From now till delivery the US will blackmail the buyer with delays and increase the agreed upon price at least 3 times. Standard practice.
throwaway27448about 14 hours ago
It's kind of insane they trusted us to begin with. Why?
slavik81about 14 hours ago
Americans were our brothers. We had been partners for over a hundred years.
dwdabout 11 hours ago
fakedangabout 13 hours ago
I like this analogy - sparring with each other like toddlers do, before realizing that they have a lot in common as they age, like the English language, industrialization, the systemic abuse of natives, Big Oil, the World Wars and racism.

Now that they're older, they're sparring once again, just like siblings do over the parents' estate.

asdffabout 14 hours ago
Why trust anyone? Really what stops a Trump from getting elected anywhere else? The citizens seem smarter or less bigoted? Are you sure that will always be the case given the agitprop in every form of media and internet communication in every language on earth?
mhbabout 14 hours ago
> Why trust anyone?

Because comparative advantage.

JuniperMesosabout 13 hours ago
There have been many elections in many political entities where a politician got elected because one group of citizens really liked that politician; and another group of citizens thought that politician was extremely, historically bad. This is inherent to mass democracy itself in any polity where there are real and deep-seated differences between different groups of the electorate. "A Trump" - in the sense of a politician whose opponents describe in apocalyptic terms and consider that politician's supporters to be stupid and bigoted - gets elected all the time in all sorts of places.
throwaway27448about 14 hours ago
True. But we seem like the least trustworthy people on earth at the moment. After israel, anyway.

Trump has nothing to do with it.

watwutabout 5 hours ago
Trump can be voted in everywhere, but american constitution makes curruption effectively legal, president effectively lawless and provides no balance to unchecked presidential power. Money in politics are speech, so just unlimited, so any person even having change to be president have to do what Epstein class like.

And it is constitution itself. America had lawd trying to deal with above and supreme court gutted them.

khrissabout 13 hours ago
Because Trump is a new, and (hopefully!) a one time phenomenon.

He is unique in that he seems to have absolute control over the Republican base which makes all internal party checks fail. The rest is provided by a hyper polarized media landscape and a conservative supreme court majority that seems to be open to radical upheavals. The combination of all three has rendered the constitutional safe guards ineffective. In other words, we seem to have run into an edge case in the US constitution.

The supreme court won't change materially in the near future and likely the polarization will continue, but it's hard to image someone in the future with such an absolute grip on either party. So, hopefully a soft restart of the system in 2028 will be the last of this edge case for a while. That's the hope, anyway!

The two countries have far more in common shared interests than differences, so odds are things will drift back to normal in the future.

dleslieabout 13 hours ago
Trump did not rise to power in isolation. He has not remained in isolation while in power. Voter support for Trump is still reasonably strong, and Trump and his supporters have ensured that the mechanisms of Government are packed with loyalists.

America chose this. America continues to tolerate this. America enabled this.

This isn't something that Trump can be scapegoated for. This is what many Americans wanted, or at the very least, it is what many Americans are willing to tolerate.

Planktonneabout 12 hours ago
> Because Trump is a new, and (hopefully!) a one time phenomenon.

Trump is already, on his own, a two-time phenomenon. Leaving aside broader cultural issues and patterns, "one-time only" has been clearly incorrect for a while.

JuniperMesosabout 13 hours ago
> He is unique in that he seems to have absolute control over the Republican base which makes all internal party checks fail. The rest is provided by a hyper polarized media landscape and a conservative supreme court majority that seems to be open to radical upheavals. The combination of all three has rendered the constitutional safe guards ineffective. In other words, we seem to have run into an edge case in the US constitution.

The US constitution has absolutely nothing at all to say about political parties or the particular state of the media landscape, or for that matter the partisan alignment of justices of the supreme court. It's incoherent to suggest that there are "constitutional safe guards" that should have prevented the election of a president (or the exercise of power by that president), who is supported by about one-half of a very polarized electorate and opposed by a separate one-half. Everything about the Trump presidency is as constitutional as every previous US presidency, including the phenomenon of opponents of the president trying to claim that specific things they do are or should be unconstitutional.

croteabout 5 hours ago
The problem is that it isn't just an "edge case" in the constitution - the whole thing is fundamentally flawed from the very beginning. The US isn't going to be trustworthy until it manages to reshape itself into a proper democracy with functional checks and balances.

Considering the right-wing politicians are trying to turn the country into a theocratic nationalistic dictatorship and the "left-wing" politicians are content with getting votes by nothing more than not being right-wing and collecting corporate bribes: good luck with that.

red-iron-pineabout 13 hours ago
> Because Trump is a new, and (hopefully!) a one time phenomenon.

unless the US extinguishes all of its billionaires and somehow convinces 1/3 to 1/2 of their population to not vote against their own interests it'll happen again

pepperoni_pizzaabout 13 hours ago
Nixon, Reagan, Bush, Trump - not a one time phenomenon, more of a natural progression.
cyanydeezabout 12 hours ago
aside from political alignment, theres a lot of geographic, budget and climate and stategic alignments that would put swdeen designers in the same headspace.
cmrdporcupineabout 15 hours ago
You missed the absolutely huge one: that the plane it's based around is a Bombardier aircraft manufactured here in Canada.

And in general this is how Saab has tried to court us -- by making promises (how real is unclear) to bring manufacturing jobs to Canada to build things.

That is something the US has not done, will not do, and most importantly cannot do under Trump/Bissent/etc.

Canada is very unlikely to be invaded, so the actual military effectiveness / superiority is only one factor. Reducing unemployment and enhancing our manufacturing sector is as or more important.

lysaceabout 15 hours ago
> Canada is very unlikely to be invaded

Except from the south.

nxmabout 12 hours ago
If it’s invaded then a few Swedish panes will really not matter
cmrdporcupineabout 15 hours ago
Or, as it turns out, from within. (Looking at you, Danielle Smith).

But yes you're right. The only times we've been invaded were from that direction.

carlosjobimabout 14 hours ago
> * Arbitrarily slapped high tariffs on all goods from Canada while exempting Russia and Belarus.

This is due to sanctions. There is no trade between Russia and the USA to put tariffs on.

usrusrabout 14 hours ago
Makes me wonder what the penguins of Heard and McDonald Islands would say about this
866-RON-0-FEZabout 16 hours ago
We call this confirmation bias.

The Saab is likely cheaper to operate as it's a smaller plane and Canada only has to patrol its northern border.

danesparzaabout 15 hours ago
"We call this confirmation bias".

I'm genuinely curious to know what you think the author's pre-existing beliefs are.

You seem to have a few of your own: "Canada only has to patrol its northern border"

red-iron-pineabout 13 hours ago
> You seem to have a few of your own: "Canada only has to patrol its northern border"

the Canadians do not aggressively patrol the southern border because that is where all of the people are -- unlike the north -- and because the reality is that the entire Canadian military is basically a speedbump for if/when the US invaded in earnest.

asdffabout 14 hours ago
Open a history book. They do a lot more than patrol the northern border. Canada was involved in WWI, WWII, Korea, Iraq 1 and 2, Fall of Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Libyan civil war, Iraq civil war, Syrian civil war and ISIS conflict, Yemeni civil war, and a smattering of other conflicts over the past century.
jleyankabout 13 hours ago
Canada, as a commonwealth country, was involved in ww I and ww ii years before the us decided to get involved. Or more involved than selling arms.
mikeyouseabout 15 hours ago
> Canada only has to patrol its northern border.

At what point on this current trajectory in the US would that change... mostly facetiously, but not entirely..

petcatabout 15 hours ago
Canada would only have to patrol its southern Alberta border /s

No coincidence that Albertans are sparking up the seceding issue again. When 10% of the population produces nearly 20% of the country's GDP it's a breeding ground for contempt. And it also seems like Albertans are the butt of a lot of jokes from the other Canadians anyway.

I'm sure this US government would love to see an "independent" Alberta.

asdffabout 14 hours ago
What is stopping the Swedes from electing a jackass? They seem smart for now? It happens in Europe too. All these weaknesses are liable for any country in a democratic model where executive is controlled via popular vote. Population is trivial to manipulate. This is the new world. Running to Sweden doesn't change the underlying issue of the ease of manipulating an electorate using technological affordances to capture a nation from the inside without a single shot fired.
paddim8about 13 hours ago
It can happen in Sweden too but it is less likely to. We don't have a president, we have a prime minister with limited power. We have a stronger democracy run by coalitions instead of a single party. One jackass is not enough in Sweden.
vkouabout 14 hours ago
Nothing, but when your spouse turns into an abusive piece of shit, breaking up with them and looking for a new one is the right call.

Sure, the new one might turn into one too, but that's no reason to stay with one who is definitely one.

Trust arrives on foot and leaves on horseback. That's the obvious result of Trumpism - when you seek to turn every interaction into a short-term win for you, people simply stop doing business with you whenever they can avoid it.

Tens of millions of Americans voted for this guy three times, overwhelmingly twice - this is how the country wants to act.

If he and his cronies are removed from power and prosecuted and everyone pinkie swears to never go down this road again, maybe we can look into rebuilding some of that trust. In the meantime, you reap what you sow.

asdffabout 14 hours ago
Run from the US. Create a new seat of power all you want. Putin will put in his manchurian candidate wherever the power lies. The fact this happened to the US is really a byproduct of its global position. So create a new global leader, and that will be the new target for capture via propagandizing the electorate and electing a sympathizer. Running never solves anything. The problem is still the problem, and is not getting addressed.
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Benderabout 15 hours ago
Awesome, the more suppliers, sources and competition the better. Might this bring prices down and quality up?
bigyabaiabout 17 hours ago
Saab makes excellent AWACS systems, this strikes me as a good choice. It'll be interesting to see if Canada also invests in the Gripen long-term, as a replacement for the aging CF-18 fleet.
Animatsabout 8 hours ago
From the article:

> Saab is also in the running to sell Canada some of its Gripen fighters.

The Iran war has uncovered a vulnerability of the USAF's approach to basing. The USAF likes to build large, elaborate air bases. Many of the bases used to attack Iran have been hit by Iran.[1][2]

Large air bases are tough to defend from drones and missiles in quantity. There are anti-drone weapons, but now that drones are used by the thousands and tens of thousands, some of the attacks will get through. A major air base is a big, fat, soft target. Both the US and Russia have recently found this out the hard way. Air forces now need to disperse and hide. Saab, which stresses operating from minimal airfields and roads, has aircraft better suited to that.[3]

Stealth may not help as much, especially for fighters. Geometric stealth, which is designed to reflect radar beams to anywhere except straight back, doesn't help for bistatic and multi-static radar. All the players in the current wars have some of those systems now.

So, as in WWII, air operations anywhere near the enemy require dispersal.

[1] https://defencesecurityasia.com/en/iran-strikes-us-bases-mid...

[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/01/world/middleeast/iran-str...

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyD0liioY8E

switchbakabout 14 hours ago
The F-35 always seemed like a funny choice for a mainline fighter for Canada. Even the US has invested in many more F-15EXs. Having a Hi/Lo mix makes sense for a larger force, but equipping a smaller force with only exquisite birds doesn't seem to make much sense.

Then again, this is Canada - sensible decision making in military procurement just isn't something that happens here.

But the economies of scale are such that at least the $$ isn't completely out of whack (for purchase at least, maintenance I'm not so sure of). I would wager that the cost of maintaining those ancient CF-18s is pretty high now too though.

jandrewrogersabout 13 hours ago
The F-15EX is designed to be a stand-off missile truck that works in tandem with a network of forward-deployed stealth jets. This compensates for the relatively low ordnance load-out of stealth jets. A stealth jet can designate and cue a target from the front using an F-15EX as a missile launcher safely in the back since it is non-stealthy.

The F-15EX isn't a particularly survivable aircraft on its own. It is a plane you'd only use if you have stealth jets and you plan to do air combat at scale. It augments the capabilities of something like an F-35 but isn't something you'd add to your fleet unless you had a lot of stealth aircraft.

bigyabaiabout 13 hours ago
The F-15A/C is designed to act as a missile truck, but the F-15EX was specifically designed to be a multirole strike fighter. You can operate it without putting 20 AMRAAMs on the pylon, or without an F-35 datalinked to it, and many countries do. The flexibility and heavy ordinance are the selling point at home and abroad.

Canada could very well operate the F-15EX without a fleet of stealth fighters. The F-35 is not an interceptor platform in any sense of the word, in an "all out" scenario like you're suggesting it's doubtful they would be any better than the CF-18 they have today.

jleyankabout 15 hours ago
I think the F-16 would have been a good bird for Canada's needs. The F-18 had the advantage of two engines, which strikes me as a good thing in the Arctic. If these two are off the table, things like the Saab are reasonable. There's only 2-3 countries one needs stealth fighters for, and 30-40-ish won't matter in such cases.
switchbakabout 14 hours ago
We've long pushed for 2 engines - which has made sense in the past. Even a successful ejection over the vast arctic would basically be a death sentence. Though some of our allies don't seem to have the same reservations, and it seems modern engines are a lot more reliable - certainly the F-35 only has one, so it looks like we're ok with it now.

The modern F-18's and the new F-15's would have also made sense, but agreed that modern F-16s would seem to be a nearly perfect fit if a single engine is now deemed acceptable. Given we like to keep equipment for as long as physically possible (and then some), the F-35 might have more runway (rimshot) in that regard though.

jleyankabout 14 hours ago
If the F-15 line is still in production, it's a damn fine bird and has broad mission capability. And the remaining B-52's are probably older that most of the HN community. At least those not retired or cashed out.
nradovabout 14 hours ago
The F-16 lacks the range to operate effectively in Canada. They would need to load it up with multiple conformal or external fuel tanks, which wrecks performance, and would still need extensive tanker support.
jamesonabout 14 hours ago
Trust matters in business because it provides a sense of predictability
jleyankabout 15 hours ago
We can also have a chuckle and imagine the kerfuffle in the US West Coast wanted to be the 11th provinces...
bushbabaabout 7 hours ago
Saab uses the Bombardier Global 6500 here. Which is entirely manufactured in Canada. This is less politics and more about economics
dingalingabout 6 hours ago
Not 'entirely', the 6500's wings are made in Japan, the rear fuselage and tail in Northern Ireland and the engines in England.
winfredJaabout 15 hours ago
Trump's damage to the USA will be studied extensively in the future.
SecretDreamsabout 14 hours ago
Depends how much it gets damaged. There's a world where they won't know how to read in the future.
moltarabout 16 hours ago
Now the interesting question to me is why is that a country with a tenth of population can have car, truck and military plane manufacturing yet Canada can’t, even with virtually all resources for inputs, including energy can’t.
petcatabout 16 hours ago
Canada has many issues. First and foremost, their entire economy is basically 3 mineral extraction industries stacked on top of each other in a trench coat.

They are also (unfortunate?) to share a border with USA and be party to NAFTA. This makes it trivial for educated, professional Canadians to work in the US on a TN visa indefinitely. We know that the doctor and nurse brain-drain from Canada to the US has been ongoing for decades. But it's actually every industry since US firms pay 2-3x more than equivalent Canadian firms.

The reality is that Canadians get very good, tax-payer subsidized educations and then immediately go to the US to work for 10+ years and only return later when they need to start drawing on the Canadian social services for things like healthcare and family care. And Canada itself got none of the benefits of that workforce in between.

I saw a figure recently that the US issued an all-time-high 800,000 TN admissions to Canadians in 2016. And then in 2023 it surged to nearly 1.3 million.

lbritoabout 15 hours ago
>We know that the doctor and nurse brain-drain from Canada to the US has been ongoing for decades.

Its actually the opposite: it had been going on for some time, but has reversed for decades, and in recent years Canada has had _increasing gains_ of medical professionals from the US.

>The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) reports annually on the number of physicians moving abroad and returning to active practice in Canada (CIHI 1996–2005). In the early to mid-1990s, net losses averaged 400 per year. More recently, the number of physicians leaving Canada has decreased significantly, resulting in net gains of between 30 to 60 per year. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2645159/#:~:text=Th...

kashunstvaabout 16 hours ago
> The reality is that Canadians get very good, tax-payer subsidized educations and then immediately go to the US to work for 10+ years and only return later when they need to start drawing on the Canadian social services for things like healthcare and family care.

You write this declaratively as if it describes a typical or representative case. In the 11 years I’ve lived in Canada, this isn’t representative of what I see.

The direction of migration of medical doctors likewise shows signs of reversal. I’m a physician and my wife is a surgeon. We left the U.S. over a decade ago and are constantly receiving inquiries from US physicians about immigration.

petcatabout 16 hours ago
> We left the U.S. over a decade ago

I'm assuming you were educated in Canada, and then you worked in the US (but now you don't)?

cmrdporcupineabout 12 hours ago
Thank you for your contributions.
turtlesdown11about 16 hours ago
> I saw a figure recently that the US issued an all-time-high 800,000 TN visas to Canadians in 2016. And then in 2023 it surged to nearly 1.3 million.

This citation is an order of magnitude off. The US doesn't really track/release visa numbers well, what you're citing might be the number of individual entries using a TN visa - visaholders go back and forth, it's not the total number of visa holders.

DHS estimates 130k Canadian visaholders in country in 2024. https://ohss.dhs.gov/topics/immigration/nonimmigrant/populat...

Canada has 22m workers, so 130k working in the States is nothing like what you're claiming.

>their entire economy

Resource extraction is about ~10% of GDP, compared to 3-5% in the US and 1-2% in mainland Europe. Scandanvian countries have comparable resource extraction % of GDP. It's hardly the entire economy. It's also diversified resource extraction, it's not dependent on oil, etc. Your claim is overblown.

dborehamabout 14 hours ago
Canada also supplies the US with most of its comedians.
hylarideabout 16 hours ago
These are extremely expensive programs that the Swedes have historically been willing to pay to maintain as much neutrality as possible in their defence procurement system. A Saab Gripen has almost the same flyway cost as an F-35 because of manufacturing scale differences (maintenance is far cheaper, though) and the Gripen is far less capable (it is one of the best western fighters if a full blown war happens and your bases are all destroyed, though). Sweden had unique defence requirements due to this that wasn't being met by others.

Sweden was forced to take their defence seriously due to their geography and political will. Canada has had an easy ride and when the going got expensive, we cancelled our domestic programs (most famously the arrow, but also a lot of other stuff).

MegaDeKayabout 13 hours ago
There were plenty of good reasons to cancel the Arrow: it was very difficult to fly, it burned fuel like crazy, it had poor maneuverability, etc. A friend of mine is considered an expert on its history and is convinced it was the right call, despite going into his research as a huge fan of the plane.
tredre3about 16 hours ago
Not that it invalidate your point, but Sweden has 1/4 the population of Canada, not 1/10.
toxikabout 16 hours ago
Sweden does not have a car industry. The fighter jets are a different matter, very strong technical moat and need to prove the system in combat. You can't just start a fighter jet business.
throwa356262about 15 hours ago
What do you mean Sweden does not have a car industry?

Volvo and Polestar have their HQ in Sweden and huge manufacturing plants. They also develop platforms for some other Gealy brands including Link&co and IIRC also Zeeker.

And then there is the Koenigsegg...

michaelscottabout 16 hours ago
It does with Volvo, although I couldn't say how big it is relative to global industry. Within Europe it's a large player
lambdasquirrelabout 15 hours ago
Volvo is complicated. Basically a lot of these smaller companies and countries realized there was no way they could make the economics work with the cost of electronics and software-related R&D being what they are. So they sold to larger players. But design and final assembly still happens in Gothenburg for high-end models that are typically destined for the EU market. The US now manufactures the SUVs.
distancesabout 16 hours ago
Scania is Swedish, too.
sedatkabout 16 hours ago
A Chinese company owns Volvo since 2010 or so.
OakNinjaabout 16 hours ago
Volvo still produces cars in Sweden. Koenigsegg still build their cars in Ängelholm.
danesparzaabout 15 hours ago
The Top Gear enthusiast in me loves that you included Koenigsegg in this conversation.

But including a company that hand-builds a handful of hypercars annually in a conversation about the auto industry in Sweden is not the flex you think it is.

tredre3about 16 hours ago
But by that metric Canada also has a car industry? Canada builds 1.5M cars annually.
Danoxabout 16 hours ago
Sweden had a native car industry they decommissioned themselves, in short, they basically gave up, but they’re not alone Australia, New Zealand did the same and so did Canada, but they’re starting to realize that they were a little bit hasty in giving up….

Then last, but not least the UK basically threw the towel in too on a wide assortment of industries, but they’re now discovering that that was a big mistake.

robocatabout 14 hours ago
New Zealand had car assembly which isn't a car industry.

Although my friend was working at an injection moulding company in Christchurch that did some parts for Holden (GM) in Australia.

jleyankabout 14 hours ago
Looking at Ford, GM, and Stellantis, one can say the US doesn't really have an auto industry either. Certainly not a car industry.
gmuecklabout 16 hours ago
Why are you discounting Volvo?
andrewstuartabout 16 hours ago
>> Sweden does not have a car industry.

Apart from Volvo, Koenigsegg and Polestar and Scania. Apart from that, you’re right.

ChrisGreenHeurabout 16 hours ago
If Saab wanted to they could spin up a car factory as well. But they are more interested in selling these airplanes the article is about.
kashunstvaabout 16 hours ago
Canada has historically relied on a relatively stable trading relationship with the U.S. That relationship is a shambles. It remains to be seen how Canada retools itself; I imagine that we will see a blend of on-shoring and new trading sources. So it’s less of an issue of “can’t” and more “hasn’t (yet)”.
joering2about 15 hours ago
Frankly to me the fact Canada is "retooling itself" knowing well that this nightmare should be over in less than 3 years, and most likely next President will be a Democrat, but yet they keep retooling, means their strong (reliable?) assumption is that Trump Administration won't leave the office at all, similar to how Putin stayed in power in what arguingly is a Democratic Country.
data-ottawaabout 15 hours ago
The nightmare was supposed to be “over in 3 years” 9 years ago.

The foreseeable future is MAGA candidates with a coin flip odds of winning indefinitely.

tracerbulletxabout 15 hours ago
A lot of people are still in denial about Jan 6th. They really tried to overthrow the election like actually in physical effect. Not hypothetically. They were trying to not certify the election and it came down to a hairs width. They're going to try to again.
celsoazevedoabout 15 hours ago
This is Trump's second term and MAGA views won't disappear 3 years from now. Even if they assume that there will be a peaceful and lawful transition of power, I can see why they may be planning on the assumption that the "instability" (from their point of view) will continue into the future.
gopher_spaceabout 15 hours ago
There's a "people won't get tired of our good cop/bad cop bullshit because there's money to be made" attitude in the US that doesn't even reflect our own point of view.

They're retooling because it doesn't matter who the next president is.

SpicyLemonZestabout 15 hours ago
You're missing some of the history here. Canada's initial free trade integration with the US in the late 80s was controversial at the time, with opponents specifically predicting a slow erosion of sovereignty until one day Canada is forced to subordinate itself to the US. What Trump showed is that that concern was correct, although the erosion was fortunately not yet complete enough to force Canada's hand. The Canadian people don't want to be continually dependent on the goodwill of future US Presidents; they want "Canada should the US" to sound like "Taiwan should join the US" or "France should join the US", an obviously impossible idea that even the most vehement partisans would have to explain away rather than trying to make it happen.
Hikikomoriabout 13 hours ago
It's not just trump anymore. The entire cabinet is project 2025 people, most GOP has turned or was replaced with MAGA. Project 2025 wasn't just about RAGE, it was a sycophant hiring system as people could send in their resumes and get into unelected positions.

The only chance is if the cult spell breaks with trump, as cults rarely survive that. But it at some point it will be too late, their takeover and ability to fuck with elections means you can't vote them out anymore.

cmrdporcupineabout 11 hours ago
It's actually that I think most expect the Democrats to either be to weak to fix it, or not much better even if they can win big. That's part of it, anyways.

That and there's been a clearly protectionist bias also among Democrats as well. We had to lobby the crap out of the Biden admin to get "Buy American" provisions to not exclude some standard Canadian things, etc. etc.

At the same time, flipping things around... it's clear that Carney and Co are holding out for November mid-terms on the trade front. Conservatives here keep lambasting them for not sitting down to bargain with the US to hammer out a deal, which is just the stupidest losingest idea you can think of. Trump is going to get hammered in November -- why would we sign a deal with a loser like that? To our disadvantage?

toredabout 14 hours ago
As a Great Power, Sweden had a great need for engineers to build forts, canals and other important infrastructure for the Kingdom.

These engineers came in handy when the Industrial Revolution started.

Thus Sweden has a long history of manufacturing industry.

llm_nerdabout 16 hours ago
We have a larger partner speaking the same language and with a largely synonymous culture and a heavily integrated economy as our neighbour. The moment a Canadian company sees success -- in optics, autos, science, medicine, weaponry, etc. -- it is absorbed by a larger US company and suddenly is no longer Canadian, and in many cases any Canadian operations will usually get choked out.

There are few examples where this isn't the outcome.

This has happened across Canada for well over a century, across every sphere. And in the process the Canadian input is retconned out of existence and Americans ponder why Canada "doesn't make anything". They post ignorant nonsense about how Canada is resource extraction in a trench coat or similar nonsense.

Sweden had nothing like this, and they punch way above their weight class because of this. Though that has been changing, for instance with a Chinese company buying Volvo, etc.

The only protection against this is...protectionism, whether explicit controls or implicitly by ownership or funding structures. Canada became a leader in nuclear tech by the nuclear industry basically being government owned. It became a transportation powerhouse by a government owned railway. And so on.

Change is afoot. Carney has made significant efforts to stop just sending hundreds of billions to the US and most military procurement will focus on Canadian products and innovation. Which leads to lots of gnashing and screaming by propaganda rags like the US-owned PostMedia (yup, even a lot of our media gets absorbed by the US, at least where it isn't explicitly barred from doing so).

yobboabout 16 hours ago
> Sweden had nothing like this

Not entirely true. AstraZeneca and ABB are examples that remain partly Swedish but many companies were merged into big multinationals and eventually marginalised.

jleyankabout 15 hours ago
FWIW, Ozempic, which seems popular, came from a Danish Pharma. There's very large pharma in Sweden, related to the UK.
bawolffabout 16 hours ago
There are trade offs in all things. Trying to do everything yourself does also have a cost. It is not neccesarily better.
energy123about 16 hours ago
Resources curse
soupbowlabout 16 hours ago
Because Canada has been poorly managed for a long time by all political parties that have been voted in.
carlosjobimabout 14 hours ago
Countries always use the threat of buying Swedish war planes as a bargaining chip to get a better deal from the US, or whoever they're really going to buy from. So these news are best believed when everything is signed, sealed, and delivered. This has been going on for at least 20 years with SAAB fighters.

From the article: "Saab is also in the running to sell Canada some of its Gripen fighters. Canada has a deal to buy 88 F-35 jets from Lockheed-Martin, but last year, after the US slapped tariffs on key Canadian imports, Carney asked the military to investigate whether it could cut back the order and buy some planes from another manufacturer."

Ask yourself: Why would a nation spill military secrets like this to the media? They're trying to put pressure on the US. Those Gripen fighters are in all likelihood staying in Sweden after all is said and done.

jmclnxabout 16 hours ago
> as the country seeks to reduce reliance on US defense firms

I wonder why ? I think we may be seeing a lot more of this.

Maybe we will get to see what US Corporations value more, real paying customers or large tax cuts w/stock buy back curtsy of US Gov Monetary Support.

LightBug1about 14 hours ago
Completely understandable.

It's like when your favourite restaurant gets taken over by new management, and you discover cockroaches and maggots in your Trenette al Pesto

You switch restaurants.

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standardUserabout 15 hours ago
As an American with mostly headline-level knowledge of Canadian politics, this Mark Carney seems unusually competent and effective, as far as heads-of-state go.
throwaway27448about 14 hours ago
Swimming downstream is easier than swimming upstream. Admitting basic reality we all talk about—eg that canada is a vassal state of the us—is only difficult until the cash river stops.
Laurel1234about 13 hours ago
He was the Governor of both the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada.
8noteabout 10 hours ago
bank of canada during the 08 problems, and bank of England over brexit, too

he's worked through a lot of emergencies

fatbirdabout 14 hours ago
Will Ferguson wrote a book named _Bastards and Boneheads_ [0] that told the history of Canada's prime ministers as one or the other. The bastards made history, the boneheads are remembered for their folly.

Mulroney and Pierre Trudeau were bastards, and supremely consequential in Canadian history. Joe Clark and Paul Martin were boneheads.

Which ones Harper and Justin Trudeau are may be too soon to tell, but Carney is clearly a bastard.

[0] https://www.amazon.ca/Bastards-Boneheads-Canadas-Glorious-Le...

stuxnet79about 13 hours ago
Mark is a technocrat. He started his political career after a long, successful stint as an economist and central bank governor. Nobody is perfect but he is about the best leader Canada can hope for to lead it out of the current funk it is in. Pivoting away from a long-term trading partner is not an easy process.

Frankly, the issues that Canada faces now stem from a long history of questionable policies, starting from when Diefenbaker shuttered the Arrow and stripped the talent and parts to be scooped up by Boeing, Lockheed et al all the way to when Mulroney & Reagan signed the FTA dooming Canada's private sector. None of this has been good for Canada's sovereignty and long term independence/success. A non-trivial amount of the SV luminaries that have started companies which showcase American inventiveness have a Canadian passport even though they don't advertise it.

The strained relationship with the US right now is actually providing ample opportunity for Canada to make some strategic long term bets without the "US foreign policy alignment" overhang. I'm optimistic.

throwaway85825about 15 hours ago
The US wedgetail order was canceled and Canada can't afford to fund the program on its own. But slop journalists will spin a geopolitical angle because it gets clicks.
throw8756about 8 hours ago
Canada will pay for this
fragmedeabout 8 hours ago
Yes. They're paying Sweden. It's in the title.