Canada’s first F-35 takes flight amid uncertainty about full procurement

Walker

Ottawa is obligated to purchase 16 F-35As but has not yet committed to fulfilling the full order of 88 fighters.

Canada’s lead Lockheed Martin F-35A fighter has completed its first flight.

The pre-delivery sortie took place in Fort Worth, Texas from Lockheed’s primary F-35 production centre.

Photos of the flight were captured by several aviation photographers and posted on social media sites, including X and Instagram. Bearing the registration number 35A001, the jet is in full livery, including a subdued Canadian flag tail flash and a subdued Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) roundel.

A video from one of the Fort Worth photographers shows the F-35A on final approach after what is described as a 90min test flight.

Lockheed Martin confirmed the milestone flight but declined to provide any specifics on the delivery timeline.

On paper, Canada has an acquisition programme of record covering 88 conventional take-off and landing A-variant F-35s, which will be locally designated the CF-35. That order was announced as part of a 2023 deal between the government of former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Washington and Lockheed to replace the RCAF’s aged fleet of Boeing F/A-18A Hornet fighters.

However, a historic deterioration in US-Canada relations, driven by a trade war launched by US President Donald Trump, has soured Canadian opinion on the F-35 purchase.

Trudeau’s successor, Prime Minister Mark Carney, was swept into office in 2025 on a wave of anti-American political sentiment and has declined to commit to purchasing any F-35As beyond the 16 jets for which funds have already been obligated.

A long-promised government review of the programme is more than a year overdue. In the meantime, senior officials in Ottawa have sought to extract additional economic benefits from Lockheed, while rival Saab has returned to the fray with an offer to establish a domestic production line for its fourth-generation Gripen E/F fighter, if Canada opts to buy that instead of the F-35.

Ottawa has already announced Saab as its preferred supplier for a new airborne early warning aircraft.

In November 2025, a group of retired senior RCAF officers sent a letter to Carney urging the government not to reduce Canada’s planned buy of F-35s.

Top Canadian defence officials have said the obsolete fleet of Hornets must be fully replaced by 2032.

Current plans will see Canada’s first F-35A delivered to the US Air Force’s Luke AFB later this year, where an initial batch of jets will be used to train the RCAF’s first cohort of F-35 pilots and maintainers.

The RCAF will start bringing its new fighters home in 2028.

The post Canada’s first F-35 takes flight amid uncertainty about full procurement first appeared on FlightGlobal.

Aviation