The current worldwide COVID-19 pandemic will inevitably impact national defence budgets but some of the largest procurement programmes have so far been ring-fenced. These include billion dollar contracts for new multirole fighter aircraft for Canada, Finland and Switzerland to replace their respective McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F/A-18 Hornet fleets. In July 2010, Canada's Conservative government announced that it intended to procure 65 Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning Ⅱ Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft to replace the Royal Canadian Air Force's (RCAF) existing 80 CF-18A/B Hornets for $7 billion with deliveries planned for 2020. With this announcement, Canada became an F-35 component supplier but after years of technical problems, and missed deadlines, and a new government, Canada became the first nation to cancel their order and purchase of 18 F/A-18E Super Hornets as an interim solution instead.
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