Canada & Portugal Rethink Plans To Buy F-35s Due To Trump

With concerns about a supposed “kill switch” to the US President Donald Trump’s views on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ( NATO

), the new Carney Administration in Canada

is considering whether to continue F-35A purchases to replace their aging F/A-18A Hornets. Additionally, the Portuguese have decided to replace their aging F-16 Vipers with another fighter jet instead of the F-35

. However, finding a fighter jet that does not have American avionics or engines severely limits these NATO nations’ options to the Saab JAS 39 Gripen

and Dassault Rafale

pictured above.

Canada looking again at a split buy to replace CF-18s

Canada, clearly unsettled by a trade war initiated by their neighbor and ally the United States’ Trump Administration, just brought in a new administration led by Mark Carney with direction to review it’s Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) purchase of 88 F-35As. Although, according to the March 14 CBC, the first 16 F-35As have been paid for, the new Defense Minister Bill Blair did say on CBC’s Power and Politics that

“It was the fighter jet identified by our air force as the platform that they required, but we are also examining other alternatives — whether we need all of those fighter jets to be F-35. … The direction I’ve been given by the Prime Minister is go and look at all of our options to make sure we make the right decision for Canada. … Go and do the homework.”

Carney also alleged that the 88 F-35As might not be delivered for several decades. A F-35A is pictured below:

However, a Government of Canada website directly contradicts the new Defense Minister with this timeline:

First Aircraft Delivery in the US: 2026

First Aircraft Arrival in Canada: 2028

Initial Operational Capability: 2029-2030

Full Operational Capability: 2032-2034

Full Operational Capability means all F-35As are in hand, and each F-35A can perform every mission. There are also these infographics about Canada’s F-35 participation:

However, Minister Blair has been instructed to reexplore the Saab Gripen proposal to build Gripens in Canada. The same proposal for a fourth-generation fighter jet with one-third US components.

Readers can learn more
below:

Additionally, Simple Flying was on top of

earlier discussions of Canada divesting from the F-35A
:

But Canada is not the only NATO member with reservations about the F-35.

Risk of “Limitations to use” key issue for Portugal

As The Aviationist translated on March 13 from Portuguese media outlet Público published on Mar. 13, 2025, Portuguese Defense Minister Nuno Melo made clear a nervousness about partnering with the United States at this time with such a complex project as the Lockheed Martin F-35:

“There were elections in the US, there was a position in relation to NATO and the world, stated by the Secretary of Defense and by the US President himself, which must also be taken into account in Europe and in what concerns Portugal. And this ally of ours, which has always been predictable over the decades, could bring limitations to use, maintenance, components, and everything that has to do with ensuring that aircraft will be operational and used in all types of scenarios.”

Any defense minister must consider the availability of spare parts and such, considering that any fighter jet—whether the F-35 or another fighter jet—requires many spare parts to remain serviceable and fully mission-capable. This is the true F-35 “kill switch”—denial of logistical support.

Granted, when the Grumman F-14 Tomcat’s “kill switch” was flipped in Iran in 1979,

Iran was for decades able to economically support workarounds
until Russia offered Su-35 Super Flankers. But back to Portugal’s F-16s…

About the F-16s to be replaced

But with the Portuguese Air Force, according to the Flight International 2025 World Air Forces Directory, with 21 surviving Lockheed Martin

F-16As will be looking for replacements. According to F-16.net and a Lockheed Martin June 26, 2003, statement, the Portuguese have F-16A and F-16B Block 15s.

But the Block 15s have had a Mid-Life Upgrade (MLU). Below is what the Portuguese F-16s got as per the Lockheed Martin statement:

Structural upgrades called Falcon UP/Falcon STAR

F100-PW-220E engine upgrade

Block 50 F-16C/D-style cockpit with color multifunction displays and modular mission computer

APG-66(V)2 radar update

Digital terrain system

Global positioning system

Advanced identification friend or foe

Improved data modem data link

Electronic warfare management system

A night identification light

Dedicated electronic warfare MUX bus

Additional chaff/flare dispensers

Provisions for a reconnaissance pod and a helmet-mounted display.

Provisions for an internal missile warning system and a flight analyzer/air combat evaluation/voice and data recorder.

This was to bring the Portuguese F-16s to standards with other European F-16 operators like Belgium, Denmark, Norway, and the Netherlands. The ability to have this same integration with the F-35 made the F-35 appealing to Portugal until US policy towards NATO recently changed.

US Policy Towards NATO Urges Rethink

The United States’ policy towards NATO appears to be changing. On one hand, as the new United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said at the Ukraine Defense Contact Group on February 12,

“The United States remains committed to the NATO alliance and to the defense partnership with Europe. Full stop. But the United States will no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship which encourages dependency. Rather, our relationship will prioritize empowering Europe to own responsibility for its own security. “

US President Donald Trump has made similar comments in many places, and is pleased that more European nations are increasing defense spending. However, President Trump did say, according to RealClearPolitics with a C-SPAN video for verification on March 6 that,

“I think it’s common sense. If they don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them. No, I’m not going to defend them. … I view NATO as potentially good. But you got to get some good thinking in NATO. It’s very unfair what’s been happening.”

But on September 11, 2001 when terrorists wantonly attacked the United States of America – NATO invoked Article 5 in America’s defense the next day.

Bottom line: F-35 interoperability seen of questionable value

Sadly, both Canada and Portugal are questioning whether the F-35’s international interoperability can be relied on. However, replacing the F-35 with another fighter jet lacking substantial American components leaves them with only two realistic alternatives: The Dassault Rafale

and Eurofighter Typhoon

. Even then, the Rafale and Typhoon will have to replace some subassemblies for a truly non-American solution. One can

learn more about the Rafale
below:

Then

there’s the Eurofighter Typhoon
, which again will require some avionics substituted to have no American content:

For both Canada and Portugal, the choice of replacing aging fighter jets will be difficult. But as Rebecca Miller, Lockheed Martin’s director of global media relations, shared with Canada’s CBC:

“Foreign military sales are government-to-government transactions, so anything further will be best addressed by the U.S. or respective customer governments. As part of our government contracts, we deliver all system infrastructure and data required for all F-35 customers to sustain the aircraft.”

Clearly, the United States needs to help reassure NATO countries of the integrity and reliability of the F-35 Enterprise, not Lockheed Martin. But the F-35’s saga has had a long journey with many high-G turns.