BREAKING: Canada To Choose GRIPEN FIGHTER JETS

Hello, everybody.

Welcome back.I hope your day's starting off great.There's breaking news, although not completely official yet.There's strong indications that our government has made up its mind on the question of, do we purchase F -35 fighter jets from the United States or Gripen fighter jets from Sweden?Now, let me give acknowledgment to the reporter that broke the story, Daniel LeBlanc, who from CBC broke it on June 6th and I haven't had time to wash my hair yet this morning so I'm going to do the video wearing my I Choose Canada hat.

Now this is not an opinion piece, this is based on conversations with high -ranking officials reported the headline is Ottawa's mixed fleet of F -35s and Gripens could total more than 100 aircraft.The globalized supply chain could be used for major Gripen project as negotiations continue.

Okay, so that represents a major shift, just the headline.A mixed fleet of F -35 fighter jets and Gripen fighter jets totaling over 100 aircraft.Now as it stands right now, Canada has firmly committed to 16 F -35s.and we made some initial payments on 14 more for parts with a total potential purchase of 88 F -35s.

Now we're talking about a fleet of over 100 planes.The federal government is looking at expanding the military's fighter fleet beyond the original plan for 88 jets, according to industry and government sources.Negotiations are underway for the Canadian Armed Forces to acquire a larger mixed fleet of American -made Lockheed Martin F -35s and Saab Gripen E -fighters built in Canada, sources say.

Now, this is something I predicted in a previous video I did when Canada committed to purchasing the Swedish -made Global Eye surveillance system, and that would sit on top of a Canadian plane made by Bombardier.I think we committed to six of those, and that was the idea.ingredient needed to entice Saab to manufacture Gripen fighter jets here in Canada.

We had to commit to both those things.According to various sources, the federal government would still be looking at a fleet of 72 to 88 F -35s, even if it moves forward with the Gripen.So we'd still be looking at 72 to 88 F -35s?How many Gripens?Several sources said Ottawa is exploring a purchase of 72 Gripens.which would create up to 9 ,000 jobs and be the largest defense industrial project in Canada.

Saab is continuing to refine its business plan to build Gripen fighter jets in Canada, not just for Canadians, but for other NATO countries as well, to export, notably by using the supply chain that will be put in place for the Global Eye production.There could easily be a fleet of 140 aircraft, says a source with knowledge of discussions between Saab and Ottawa.CBC News granted confidentiality to several sources directly involved with the file to allow them to provide details on private discussions.So this is something I didn't see coming.

I think a lot of us thought, well, we may end up with a mixed fleet.But I thought, well, that 88 plane would be the maximum number.

It looks like the government's contemplating a much bigger Air Force.Discussions surrounding the Gripen are taking place in the context of a review of the F -35 purchase launched by Prime Minister Mark Carney in March of 2025 in response to diplomatic and trade tensions with the idiots administration in the U .S.There is an overall sense in Ottawa that the decision on the fighter jets is firmly in the hands of Carney, who could use the fate of the F -35 program as part of the negotiations over the renewal of the Canadian -U .S.

-Mexico agreement Kuzma.us leverage in the Kuzma renegotiations because this F -35 fighter jet contract on its own represents one of the biggest transfers, potential transfers, of Canadian money, Canadian taxpayers' money, from our government to directly injected into the U .S.S.military complex, funding their economy.So this is going to be used as a card in the negotiations, renegotiations, and discussions over Kuzma.

Now, it seems that our government has learned a little bit of a lesson here.In 2023, the Liberal government, then led by Justin Trudeau, offered an untendered contract to Boeing, a U .S.company, for the purchase of 16 P -8A Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft.

An untendered contract given to a U .S.company?A dumb move by Mr. Trudeau.

At the time, Montreal -based Bombardier unsuccessfully called for a competition, wanting to make a bid for this type of aircraft.

Of course, and rightly so, this caused a lot of controversy and was seen as a lesson for the Carney Liberals, who promised during the last federal election campaign to buy Canadian -made early warning aircraft.

A few months later, Industry Minister Joe Lee launched discussions with Saab executives to purchase GlobalEye aircraft, which used the Bombardier Global 6500 jets as its main platform.And so he's delivered on that promise by making the deal with Saab.Further discussions were held during a trip by Jolie last August to Saab's facilities in Sweden before gaining additional momentum during a Swedish royal visit to Canada in November.So after all those meetings, the Canadian government indicated exactly what the criteria would be to make a decision.Government sources say Canada wants to achieve three objectives with its major military acquisition projects, meet the needs of the Canadian Armed Forces, diversify its geopolitical alliances, and defend the industrialsector.

And I hope you appreciate that two of those three objectives necessarily mean choosing someone other than the United States.So after all of those discussions, our government is this close to finally making the formal announcement.and a representative from Sweden had this to say, I was here two years ago and we couldn't really see that Canada would move so fast, said Karp.Anders Karp, deputy CEO of Saab.We're extremely proud that we're part of this journey and we're also humbled because we're starting something now that will last for 30, 40, 50 or more years.Industry sources say there is a possibility that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO, will officially announce that it has chosen the GlobalEye as its future long -range detection device in early July.

which they say would have made finding a European industrial partner easier had Canada not already acted.commit to acquire the Gripen -E aircraft if it wants Saab to establish a factory in the country to build aircraft not just for our armed forces but also for Ukraine.Carney has said having reached NATO's target of 2 % of GDP for defense spending, Canada now aims to reach 4 % of GDP by the end of the decade.We are moving from a regulatory approach that checks the boxes to one that builds our defense industrial base with speed and scale," Carney said as he announced the Global Eye project last month.So the situation now looks like it's highly likely that we'll end up withwith a mixed fleet, that we will secure some industrial capacity in Canada to produce, manufacture Gripen fighter jets, as well as the Global Eye surveillance systems.

As far as how many F -35s we end up with, well, that is going to give us leverage as we enter Kuzma renegotiations with the Americans.It's probably not set how many we're going to purchase.So there's still some flux.But we're this close, I think, to making an announcement that we're going to commit to a certain number of grip -ins.I can't see the government swaying away from that now, since one of our top objectives is to bring manufacturing to Canada, to create jobs in Canada, and this deal having a mixed fleet now, and committing to manufacturing Gripens in Canada would give us a bigger air force and also give us a new industry that could supply these things to all our NATO allies in Europe.We have the manufacturing capability here in Canada that Sweden lacks.

They're a much smaller country.We have all the materials.We can have the whole supply chain here in Canada, from the steel, the aluminum, the copper, the critical minerals, everything.Canada has everything.The whole world wants what Canada has.And in this case, rather than just sell the raw materials, why don't we source all the manufacturing here as well and do it all ourselves?

Our government is choosing Canada, I guess.How close are you to believing this?Is it 70, 80 %?Leave your comments in the comments section.How close are we to making the announcement?And how sure are you that we will have a gripping fleet?

I'm not sure how many F -35s we'll end up with, 30 or so for sure that we've committed to.How many F -35s are necessary to meet our NORAD commitment with the Americans?I'm not exactly sure what that number is, but I'm not sure.sure that we'll end up with a significant fleet of Gripens and potentially become an exporter of that technology, that plane, to our NATO allies in Europe.Leave your comments, let me know what you think, subscribe to my channel if you're enjoying the content, and have a fantastic rest of your day, all my fellow Canadians, and I'll catch you all on the next one.