Commentary You fight the enemy where he’s not, said Sun Tzu a few millennia ago. The Chinese general and philosopher should be listened to, for this is what China is doing in their relations with United States. Don’t worry about Canada. I don’t mean to be impolite, but it seems our government doesn’t, so why…

Dutch F-35 fighter jets were scrambled and intercepted a formation of Russian military planes flying near Polish airspace, said Dutch defense officials on Tuesday. The Netherlands’ Ministry of Defense said that the three Russian jets were escorted out by two F-35 fighters. “The-then unknown aircraft approached the Polish NATO area of responsibility from Kaliningrad,” the…

Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) will be examining the federal government’s recent $19 billion purchase of F-35 fighter jets and has written to Defence Minister Anita Anand requesting information from her department on the deal, according to a report. “In order to provide the analysis to parliamentarians in a timely manner, I ask the information…

The Liberal government’s long delay in purchasing F-35 fighter jets has impacted the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) “quite severely” and put Canada behind foreign military competition, says former defence minister Peter MacKay. “The delay, of course, has impacted quite severely on the Royal Canadian Air Force in terms of recruitment and retention of pilots, fighter…

BERLIN—German lawmakers on Wednesday gave the go-ahead for a series of defense procurement projects, including the purchase of Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets, as Berlin begins to spend a huge fund to strengthen the country’s military. Germany in mid-March announced plans to replace aging Tornado bomber jets with 35 F-35A Lightning II aircraft capable of…

GENEVA—Swiss officials on Monday formally signed a procurement contract to acquire three dozen F-35 fighter jets from the United States as part of a planned refurbishment of Switzerland’s air force that has run afoul of critics of the big defense purchase, the government said. The head of Switzerland’s armaments service and F-35A program director inked…

Ottawa has made a multimillion-dollar payment as part of a renegotiated deal that is expected to see Canada foot more of the bill for developing the F-35 than in previous years. The US$99-million payment and renegotiated deal come despite the fact the Liberal government has said Canada may not actually buy the stealth fighter, and…

A former F-35 test pilot says Canada likely benefited from not purchasing the stealth fighter more than a decade ago. Retired lieutenant-colonel Billie Flynn spent more than 17 years flying the F-35 as a test pilot after a 23-year career in the Royal Canadian Air Force. He says Canada has avoided many of the teething…

Then-defence minister Peter MacKay climbed into a fake F-35 cockpit before smiling for the cameras and flashing a thumbs up. The date was July 16, 2010, and MacKay had just announced that Canada was planning to buy a fleet of the stealth fighters. Fast-forward to Monday and the scene was very different. There was no…

OTTAWA—Canada’s decade-long search for a new fighter jet to replace its aging CF-18s came full circle on Monday as the Liberal government announced negotiations with U.S. defence giant Lockheed Martin to purchase the F-35. Yet even as the end to that circuitous search appeared to finally be in sight, many unanswered questions remained: how much…