OTTAWA - Canada plans to order 18 Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets while seeking offers to update its aging combat fleet, Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan announced Tuesday.
Canada says 18 Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets will be deployed from 2018
Canada will remain a partner in the development program of Lockheed Martin's F-35 stealth fighter jet.
In 2010, it ordered 65 of the aircraft but scrapped the deal a year ago because of exorbitant costs and a campaign promise by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who called it a boondoggle.
Pending the government's call for offers and awaiting the next aircraft to update the fleet, the 18 Super Hornet fighter jets will be deployed from 2018 as an interim solution, Sajjan said.
Canada's current fleet of fighter jets is more than three decades old and is down from 138 aircraft to 77.
The Super Hornets will help fill a "capability gap" and allow Canada to meet its NATO and NORAD security obligations, said Sajjan.
"The number of mission-ready planes we can put in the air today is less than the NORAD and NATO obligations taken together," he said.
As well, he said, measures will be taken to extend the working life of the existing CF-18 fleet through to the late 2020s, when the new fleet should be "fully operational."