Assahafa.com
The Pentagon announced this week that it has secured a $1.1-billion contract with U.S. defence giant Lockheed Martin to manufacture M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) for several allied countries including Canada.
The notice was posted Wednesday by the U.S. Department of War on its contracting website.
It says the agreement covers the “urgent needs for the Army, Marine Corps and Foreign Military Sales customers in Australia, Canada, Estonia, Sweden and Taiwan.”
A total of 17 HIMARS will be manufactured under the new deal, and the systems will be completed by the end of April 2028, the notice said.
How many of those systems will be going to the Canadian Armed Forces is unclear. Canada had expressed interest in buying 26 in total.
Unlike with other major military equipment purchases — a parade of which was revealed in March — the Liberal government has not issued a formal statement about its intention to purchase the U.S.-made HIMARS, even though it appears the formal deal was signed in January.
Defence expert Dave Perry said it’s likely the Liberal government wanted to avoid the political spectacle of going back to the United States to buy military equipment, something Prime Minister Mark Carney promised to do less often.
“When you see notifications like this, it means basically the formal paperwork has been signed,” Perry said. “And if the money hasn’t already been put into a bank account that the U.S. government manages … then the cheque is in the mail.”
The Department of National Defence (DND) was asked Thursday for confirmation of when the letter of acceptance was signed and what down payment was made, but it did not answer those questions.
Two confidential sources said a public statement was prepared last winter around the time the deal was finalized, but it was pulled back — coming as it did a few weeks before the Liberal government released its defence industrial strategy, which emphasized buying Canadian military kit. The sources were not authorized to speak publicly.
Last October, the U.S. State Department gave Canada the green light to potentially buy the sophisticated rocket systems, which the army considers essential for defending troops in Latvia and for its overall modernization.
The U.S. government issued a letter of offer to purchase, which the Canadian government as the buyer was required to sign.
At the time last October, DND said no decision had been made to proceed with the deal, estimated at $2.4 billion.
In a year-end interview with CBC News in December, the commander of the Canadian Army, Lt.-Gen. Mike Wright, indicated the agreement was still pending but that HIMARS were an absolute necessity.
“We’re saying the HIMARS system is the long-range precision strike system that we need for land operations,” Wright said. “The reason why we made the recommendation for the procurement of HIMARS is because … it’s a capability that’s been proven on the battlefield in Ukraine. More importantly, the systems are available right now.”
In addition to the vehicle launch systems, the Pentagon said Canada is looking to buy rocket launch pods for both operations and training.
During last spring’s election, the Liberals pledged to diversify where Canada buys its military equipment from.
With the future of Canada’s fighter jet fleet being re-examined, CBC’s Murray Brewster breaks down the differences between the American F-35 and Sweden’s Gripen.
The HIMARS deal is just one on a long list of U.S. military gear that’s either on order or about to be delivered.
The F-35 stealth fighter, also built by Lockheed Martin, is the most high-profile example. Carney ordered a review of the plan to buy the warplanes, setting off a high-stakes scramble by Swedish competitor Saab to sell Canada its Gripen-E fighters.
Defence Minister David McGuinty re-iterated this week that the government still hasn’t finished that review.
The current climate of relations with the Trump administration, from tariffs to the war with Iran, has made the government gun-shy, Perry said.
There is “a concrete contradiction between what the prime minister said about shifting the ratio of dollars spent in the United States to dollars being spent in Canada” when deals such as the HIMARS one are considered, he added.
But Perry said “there’s no way we’re going to see that change happen” overnight because some of the equipment decisions were made and orders placed before Carney came to power.
Any potential delivery timeline for the HIMARS remains a mystery as well.
Last fall — apparently before the letter of offer was finalized — the defence department told CTV News it expected to see the HIMARS by 2029.
Last week, however, U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth suspended the delivery of munitions including HIMARS to Estonia, one of the nations covered by the deal with Lockheed Martin. He cited the urgent need for Washington to hold onto its military equipment because of the war with Iran. The two countries are attempting to find a resolution.
Asked in an interview last week if Canada would face any delays in the delivery of equipment from the United States, Gen. Jennie Carignan told CBC News she wasn’t aware of any.
Source: cbc
