Prime Minister Mark Carney told a defence procurement briefing in Ottawa on Wednesday that Canada had entered exclusive negotiations with Sweden's Saab to acquire the GlobalEye airborne early-warning and control aircraft, ending a three-year competition with Boeing and committing Ottawa to a defence platform whose airframe is built by Bombardier in Toronto and Montreal. The estimated value of the program is between eight and ten billion Canadian dollars over twenty years.
The decision rejects the Boeing E-7 Wedgetail, which had been the unofficial frontrunner since the cancellation of Canada's previous Aurora replacement plan. The Wedgetail program has been hit by delays at Boeing's Defense, Space & Security division, which has missed three of its last four major delivery milestones, and by cost overruns that have pushed the US Air Force unit cost above $750 million. Carney said Saab's offer included a "credible delivery timeline" with an initial operating capability in 2030.
Carney framed the choice as part of a broader rotation away from US defence dependence, a theme that has run through his government's procurement decisions since he took office in March. "We are not abandoning our American partners," he said, "but we are recognising that Canada's defence procurement has been excessively concentrated and excessively delayed." Defence minister Bill Blair said Canada had also begun consultations with Saab on potential industrial-participation arrangements, with at least sixty per cent of the contract value to be spent in Canada.
The Saab GlobalEye uses Bombardier's Global 6000 business jet as its airframe, fitted with the company's Erieye Extended Range radar and a multi-sensor suite that includes maritime surveillance and electronic intelligence capability. Saab already operates the platform with Sweden, the United Arab Emirates and France, with confirmed orders for six aircraft across those buyers. Canada's order is expected to be for six to eight aircraft.
The American defence industry reacted with restraint. Boeing said it remained "fully committed to its Canadian partners" and noted the Wedgetail's upcoming entry-into-service in the UK Royal Air Force. Lockheed Martin, whose F-35 fighter remains under active review in Ottawa as part of a separate program reassessment, declined to comment. The US Embassy in Ottawa said the bilateral defence relationship remained "fundamental."
Carney is in New York this week to pitch Canada to global investors, a trip framed by his office as an attempt to position Toronto and Montreal as alternative listing and operating bases as US capital markets navigate trade uncertainty. The Saab announcement was timed to land while Carney was on US soil, and Carney told reporters at Toronto Pearson before leaving that the procurement was "a Canadian decision made on Canadian merits."