US makes scathing threat to Canada if they back out of purchasing F-35 fighter jets

Canada's decades-old military agreement with the United States could be radically changed if the country does not follows through on its promise to buy 88 fighter jets, President Trump's ambassador has warned.

The scathing threat to change the terms of the North American Air Defence Command (NORAD), came as Canada reviews the partnership it has with its tariff-happy southern neighbor, including its agreement to buy 88 American-made F-35 fighter jets.

With just 16 of these cutting-edge jets paid for and develivered, Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra warned CBC that 'NORAD would have to be altered' if the Canadians did not follow through on their purchase.

Hoekstra argued that the US would have to purchase more fighter jets itself to defend North America's airspace if the country backed out, potentially resulting in US Air Force jets enforcing Canada's sovereign airspace.

The sale of cutting-edge F-35 fighter jets to countries around the world has become symbolic of American imperial power (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

"If Canada is no longer going to provide that [capability], then we have to fill those gaps," he added, highlighting the importance of NORAD in defending both countries from airborne threats.

NORAD has tracked potential threats to the airspace over Canada, Alaska, and the rest of the contiguous US since the start of the Cold War, with American and Canadian jets being sent to intercept any unidentified aircraft.

But Hoekstra is threatening that US jets would be forced to operate in Canadian skies if Prime Minister Carney decides to cancel the rest of the F-35 purchases, which cost between $80 million and $110 million per plane.

This warning has been branded a heavy-handed 'political pressure tactic' by a Canadian national security official, who argued that the US was threatening the NORAD alliance simply to sell more planes.

This is because Canada is weighing up replacing the US-made Lockheed Martin F-35 with the similarly-priced Swedish Gripen fighter jets, after a number of allies have raised concerns about America's control of replacement parts for their air force.

The Saab-made Swedish Gripen fighter jet has become a cornerstone of eastern Europe's defense (Jonathan Nackstrand / AFP)

"If they decide," Hoekstra said, "they’re going with an inferior product that is not as interchangeable, interoperable as what the F-35 is, that changes our defence capability. And as such, we have to figure out how we're going to replace that."

Defense officials have long argued that the F-35 is a superior fighter jet platform, due to the ability to change the plane's equipment to allow it to be deployed across a variety of environments, whether that's a vertical takeoff from an aircraft carrier or a long-ranged strike mission.

National Security adviser under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Vincent Rigby, said: "This is another off-the-cuff remark by the ambassador. it can’t be ignored but neither should it be taken as gospel truth from either the administration or the Pentagon."

But in Europe, military experts are beginning to warn against using the American-made platform, with many on the continent now viewing the US as an unreliable partner.

Danish defense committee chief Rasmus Jarlov has warned allies to 'choose another fighter jet,' after Trump threatened to annex Greenland, territory that has belonged to the European country for centuries.

He warned that the F-35 program required a constant stream of US-made parts, giving America total control over whether other nation's air forces even leave the tarmac.

Jarlov said: "They're in for repairs about half the time or even more. So the Americans have all the power of actually destroying our air force just by shutting down [parts] supplies."