The Daily Populous Thursday May 28th, 2026 evening edition
Authored by apnews.com and submitted by xitizen7

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TORONTO (AP) — Canada will buy early warning radar planes built by Sweden’s Saab and Canada’s Bombardier over two American options, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Wednesday.

Carney said his government has entered negotiations to procure Saab’s Airborne Early Warning & Control Aircraft, which is built on the Canadian-manufactured Bombardier Global 6500 aircraft and will support domestic production.

Carney also noted it is made with 20% U.S. content. The federal government has previously said it’s in the market for six radar aircraft.

Carney has made a point of diversifying its military spending away from the United States.

Equipped with powerful radar, the Saab planes provide situational awareness about aircraft and missile movements for hundreds of miles (kilometers). They can detect hostile activity in the air or from ships are able to direct fighter jets to their targets.

“Saab’s GlobalEye will be a key resource for the Canadian Armed Forces to detect and deter threats across the Arctic,” Carney said.

The other options would have been to buy the E-7A Wedgetail surveillance planes built by U.S. aircraft manufacturer Boeing or the Aeris X by L3Harris.

NATO is also considering the Saab plane over the American options.

Carney has previously said that no more will over 70 cents of every dollar of Canadian military capital spending go to the U.S.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s actions — including launching a trade war and suggesting Canada become the 51st U.S. state — infuriated Canadians and created the political environment for Carney to win the job of prime minister after promising to confront Trump’s increased aggression.

The Canadian government is reviewing the planned purchase of U.S. F-35 fighter jets to explore other options. Carney has said the potential for having more production in Canada is a factor. A proposal by Saab promised that assembly and maintenance of the Saab Gripen fighter jet would take place in Canada.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Canada’s decision on the early warning radar plane ties the two nations even closer together.

“As the GlobalEye is based on the Canadian Bombardier Global 6500 platform, GlobalEye is already creating jobs in Canada, and working with the Canadian supply chain,” Kristersson said in a post on social media.

Silicon_Knight on May 28th, 2026 at 11:31 UTC »

Given it's a leading platform and using Canada’s Bombardier planes, it just makes sense really. Kinda a win win.

zevonyumaxray on May 28th, 2026 at 11:01 UTC »

Canada has purchased the P-8 Poseidon anti-submarine surveillance aircraft which is based off of the Boeing 737-800 (with some modifications even before the military equipment). So it's not Canada flat out rejecting Boeing. But recently America's Hegseth mused about cutting back on purchasing the E-7 Wedgetail until Congress members called him out. So why would Canada want to buy a system that's up for debate? And the other American system is very similar to the Saab-Bombardier option but not quite as far along in development. Canada is buying a system that will have a good amount of Canadian content and a small amount of American content in various systems instead of well over 50%.

Inaccurate93 on May 28th, 2026 at 10:48 UTC »

Good, putting money where his mouth is.