Carney govt halts 16 Black Hawk helicopter purchase — SkimNews
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- Carney government suspended plans to purchase 16 Black Hawk helicopters for Canada's special forces, doing so quietly as trade tensions with Washington escalate
- Ottawa is showing growing reluctance to buy American military equipment, with the Black Hawk decision framed as part of that broader pullback
- Canada's special forces commanders are seeking the urgently needed helicopter capability that the government has now paused, creating a gap between operational demand and procurement policy
- Black Hawk helicopters — the Sikorsky-made rotorcraft long used by US and allied forces — were the specific platform targeted in the suspended deal
Why it matters: The suspension deepens a capability gap for Canada's special forces at the moment commanders say they need new rotorcraft most, while signalling that Ottawa is willing to let military readiness absorb the cost of distancing from US procurement. The 16-aircraft deal was the kind of cross-border defense trade that traditionally anchored Canada-US interoperability, and walking it back reframes the trade war as a defense-industrial one too.
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