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Canada to order military plane fleet from Sweden in shift from US suppliers

theguardian.com

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Re: Canada to order military plane fleet from Sweden in shift from US suppliers

#331

Post by cmrdporcupine »

8note wrote: post #312
jleyank wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would think Ontario is the centre of Canada as it has the most people and the financial centre. Google's AI says 38% of GDP. And the problem Alberta faces is who wants to separate, what do they want to do afterwards and what ground do they actually own (vs. treaties that predate Alberta). When Alberta at least catches up to Quebec in practicing being independent (runs its own police, collects its own taxes, has its…

alberta has the border to ship stuff through, the only one that actually matters, to the south rounding errors east and west dont particularly matter

North America's biggest oil pipeline -- Enbridge Mainline, which has a capacity of 3.2M barrels per day -- runs east through Sask, Manitoba, ducks down through Michigan, and then splits before coming back into Canada in Ontario in two places (including Line9 ~1km from my house.)

Ontario is one of Alberta's biggest customers.

Then there's westbound ... TMX capacity of 890,000 barrels a day, to BC ports (and then on to China).

vs southbound lines to the US

Keystone, 640,000 BPD

and Express 310,000

Please check your facts.

Re: Canada to order military plane fleet from Sweden in shift from US suppliers

#332

Post by chaostheory »

adjejmxbdjdn wrote: post #250
khriss wrote: post #30

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 b…

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 t…

Russia is the other threat, but yes the US is the greater threat now

Re: Canada to order military plane fleet from Sweden in shift from US suppliers

#333

Post by Waterluvian »

gunsle wrote: post #329
Waterluvian wrote: post #229

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.

[flagged]

It’s not abuse when I threaten your freedoms because think of all the things I say I did for you!

That’s the way an abuser thinks.

Re: Canada to order military plane fleet from Sweden in shift from US suppliers

#334

Post by jandrewrogers »

adjejmxbdjdn wrote: post #250
khriss wrote: post #30

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 b…

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 t…

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.

Re: Canada to order military plane fleet from Sweden in shift from US suppliers

#335

Post by drnick1 »

lux-lux-lux wrote: post #298
brightball wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

New Ukraine aid effectively ended with the current administration, if you were unaware

It did not, but the implicit U.S. policy is to help Ukraine just enough to maintain a stalemate and to keep Russia busy and unable to assist other countries like Cuba and Iran.

Re: Canada to order military plane fleet from Sweden in shift from US suppliers

#338

Post by Animats »

bigyabai wrote: post #4

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.

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

Re: Canada to order military plane fleet from Sweden in shift from US suppliers

#339

Post by nl »

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...

Re: Canada to order military plane fleet from Sweden in shift from US suppliers

#340

Post by marcus_holmes »

brightball wrote: post #295
adjejmxbdjdn wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ag…

> 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?

> 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

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