{"id":24405777,"date":"2026-09-24T09:57:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T07:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/canada-first-f-35-cf-35a-maiden-flight-fort-worth-2026\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T09:57:43","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T07:57:43","slug":"canada-first-f-35-cf-35a-maiden-flight-fort-worth-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/canada-first-f-35-cf-35a-maiden-flight-fort-worth-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada&#8217;s First F-35 Flies: The Milestone Nobody Announced"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\r\n\r\n<p>At around noon on Wednesday, a fighter in full Royal Canadian Air Force markings lifted off from Fort Worth, Texas, with an F-35C flying chase. Bilingual RCAF-ARC lettering on the intakes. A roundel. &ldquo;Canada&rdquo; behind the cockpit. A low-visibility maple leaf on the tail.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>It was the first flight of the first Canadian <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/f-35-lightning-ii\/\">F-35<\/a>, the end of a road that opened in 2002 and has been argued over ever since. Nobody said a word about it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>No press release from Lockheed Martin. None from the RCAF, which confirmed the flight but issued no statement. None from the Prime Minister&rsquo;s Office. For a milestone in the largest procurement in Canadian air force history, the silence is the story.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f4f6f8;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:18px 22px;margin:26px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700;font-size:17px;color:#0d1117\">Quick Facts<\/p><table style=\"width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;font-size:15px;line-height:1.6\"><tr><td style=\"padding:4px 12px 4px 0;color:#555;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Aircraft<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:4px 0;color:#222\">First Canadian F-35A, construction number AR-1, to be designated CF-35A<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:4px 12px 4px 0;color:#555;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>First flight<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:4px 0;color:#222\">Wednesday 23 September 2026, around noon local<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:4px 12px 4px 0;color:#555;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Where<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:4px 0;color:#222\">Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Texas<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:4px 12px 4px 0;color:#555;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Chase aircraft<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:4px 0;color:#222\">An F-35C<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:4px 12px 4px 0;color:#555;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Programme<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:4px 0;color:#222\">Future Fighter Capability Project, launched 2017<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:4px 12px 4px 0;color:#555;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Order<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:4px 0;color:#222\">88 aircraft agreed in 2023, reported at roughly $19 billion<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:4px 12px 4px 0;color:#555;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Ordered so far<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:4px 0;color:#222\">16 outright, with component payments started on 14 more<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:4px 12px 4px 0;color:#555;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Replaces<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:4px 0;color:#222\">The RCAF fleet of CF-188 Hornets<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:4px 12px 4px 0;color:#555;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Training<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:4px 0;color:#222\">First CF-35A training squadron stood up at Luke AFB, Arizona<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:4px 12px 4px 0;color:#555;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Arrival in Canada<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:4px 0;color:#222\">Expected 2028; squadron initial operational capability 2029 to 2030<\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Twenty-Four Years From Partner to First Flight<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>Canada joined the Joint Strike Fighter programme in 2002 as a Level 3 partner and then spent two decades not buying the aeroplane. Governments changed, competitions were launched and cancelled, and the CF-188 Hornets kept flying past every retirement date anyone had drawn for them.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The Future Fighter Capability Project finally opened in 2017. In 2022 Ottawa selected the F-35A. In January 2023 it announced 88 aircraft. And then, in March 2025, Prime Minister Mark Carney ordered a review of the whole thing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/rcaf-cf-188-hornet-demo-scheme-riat-2024.jpg\" alt=\"A Royal Canadian Air Force CF-188 Hornet taking off in anniversary demonstration colours\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The aircraft the CF-35A replaces: an RCAF CF-188 Hornet in anniversary demonstration colours. The Hornets entered service in the 1980s. Photo: Julian Herzog \/ CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The timing was not subtle. The review began as relations with Washington soured over tariffs and rather more than tariffs, and it has been running for eighteen months without a published conclusion. Canada has committed to 16 jets outright and started paying for components on another 14. The remaining 58 are, officially, still under consideration.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Quiet Part, Said Out Loud<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>Canadian officials have worked hard to describe the review as routine. The Chief of the Defence Staff, Gen. Jennie Carignan, put it to CBC Radio in the flattest possible terms.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;With the new government coming into place, it&rsquo;s perfectly normal. There&rsquo;s a request to ensure that our processes are still valid, that we are getting what we need.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Gen. Jennie Carignan<\/strong> &mdash; Chief of the Defence Staff, on CBC Radio&rsquo;s The House, August 2025<\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Washington has been rather less diplomatic. The US ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, was asked about the possibility that Canada might take its first tranche of F-35s and then fill the rest of the order with something else.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #3568e0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t afford two fighters, two different fighter jet programs. Canada should just decide what they want. Do they want F-35s? Do they want some other product? That&rsquo;s your decision to make, but you can&rsquo;t afford both of them.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Pete Hoekstra<\/strong> &mdash; United States Ambassador to Canada, interviewed by Jasmin Laine, August 2025<\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Hoekstra went further, calling the review &ldquo;an irritant that makes it harder to get to a [trade] agreement&rdquo; &mdash; which is about as close as anyone has come to confirming what everybody already assumed: that 88 stealth fighters are sitting on a negotiating table.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">A Photograph Ottawa Did Not Want to Release<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>There is a small, telling episode attached to this same airframe. When the RCAF commander, Lt. Gen. Jamie Speiser-Blanchet, signed a fuselage bulkhead destined for AR-1 at the Fort Worth plant, a military photographer recorded it. Pictures like that are normally published within hours.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>This one was not. The Ottawa Citizen obtained it only through an Access to Information request, and the Department of National Defence released a grainy copy and has refused to release the surrounding records. An anonymous departmental source told the newspaper that officials wanted to avoid anything that might look like the military taking a side while the review is open.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Which explains Wednesday perfectly. A government that will not release a photograph of a signature is not going to hold a ceremony for a first flight.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Gripen Question<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>What Carney has floated instead is a mixed fleet: cap the F-35 buy somewhere short of 88 and build Saab <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/saab-gripen\/\">Gripen E<\/a> fighters in Canada for the rest. Saab has been explicit about the industrial pitch, promising thousands of Canadian jobs. The same logic has already produced a decision elsewhere in the fleet: Saab&rsquo;s GlobalEye, built on a Bombardier Global 6500, is the leading contender for Canada&rsquo;s airborne early warning aircraft, and would be assembled in Montreal.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Iuqr5zxu-7A\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;font-style:italic;margin-top:-8px\">CBC News on what actually separates the F-35 from the Gripen, and why the choice is not only about the aircraft.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>A split fleet is not free. Two types mean two supply chains, two training pipelines, two sets of spares and two maintenance cultures for an air force that has struggled to crew one. That is the argument Hoekstra made, and it is the argument most air forces make to themselves. It is also the argument that loses when the alternative is depending entirely on a neighbour you no longer trust.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Meanwhile, the Jets Are Being Built<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>None of the politics has slowed the production line. AR-1 flew on schedule. The RCAF has stood up its first CF-35A training squadron at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona and will start training pilots there this year, with maintenance technicians heading to Eglin in Florida. The first aircraft is expected on Canadian soil in 2028, with a squadron reaching initial operational capability around 2029 or 2030.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Whatever Ottawa decides about the other 58, sixteen Canadian F-35s are happening. The first one is already flying. It just did it without anyone officially watching.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><em>Sources: The Aviationist; Skies Magazine; Defence Blog; CBC News; the Ottawa Citizen via 19FortyFive.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>When did Canada&amp;rsquo;s first F-35 fly?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The first Canadian F-35A, construction number AR-1, made its maiden flight on 23 September 2026 from Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth in Texas, accompanied by an F-35C acting as safety chase. In Royal Canadian Air Force service the type will be designated CF-35A.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Why was there no announcement of Canada&amp;rsquo;s first F-35 flight?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Neither Lockheed Martin, the Royal Canadian Air Force nor the Prime Minister&amp;rsquo;s Office marked the flight. The RCAF confirmed it took place but issued no statement. The silence reflects the review of the purchase that Prime Minister Mark Carney ordered in March 2025, which is still unresolved.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How many F-35s has Canada actually ordered?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Canada agreed in 2023 to acquire 88 F-35As under its Future Fighter Capability Project, at a reported cost of roughly $19 billion. So far it has ordered 16 aircraft outright and begun paying for components on a further 14. The remaining aircraft are still subject to review.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Could Canada buy the Saab Gripen instead?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Prime Minister Mark Carney has raised the possibility of capping the F-35 order and moving to a mixed fleet that would include Saab Gripen E fighters built in Canada. No decision has been announced. A split fleet would mean two supply chains, two training pipelines and two maintenance systems.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What aircraft does the CF-35A replace?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The CF-35A replaces the Royal Canadian Air Force fleet of CF-188 Hornets, Canada&amp;rsquo;s designation for the F\/A-18. The Hornets entered service in the 1980s and have been kept flying well past their original planned retirement while successive governments debated a replacement.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>When will Canada&amp;rsquo;s F-35s arrive in Canada?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The first aircraft is expected on Canadian soil in 2028. Initial operational capability for a CF-35A squadron is anticipated around 2029 to 2030. Until then Canadian pilots will train at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona and maintenance technicians at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Can a civilian fly in a fighter jet like the F-35?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The F-35 is not available to civilians, but supersonic fighter flights are. MiGFlug flies passengers in aircraft including the MiG-29, the L-39 Albatros and the Hawker Hunter, including sorties to the edge of space. Details and current pricing are on the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/flights-prices\/\">MiGFlug flights and prices<\/a> page.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"When did Canada&rsquo;s first F-35 fly?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The first Canadian F-35A, construction number AR-1, made its maiden flight on 23 September 2026 from Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth in Texas, accompanied by an F-35C acting as safety chase. In Royal Canadian Air Force service the type will be designated CF-35A.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Why was there no announcement of Canada&rsquo;s first F-35 flight?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Neither Lockheed Martin, the Royal Canadian Air Force nor the Prime Minister&rsquo;s Office marked the flight. 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Details and current pricing are on the MiGFlug flights and prices page.\"}}]}<\/script><div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/operation-tundra-merlin-bering-sea-f-35-e-3-canada-2026\/\">Operation Tundra Merlin: F-35s and an E-3 Over the Bering Sea<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/ct-157-siskin-ii-rcaf-pilatus-pc-21-snowbirds-tutor-replacement-2026\/\">The RCAF&rsquo;s New Trainer and the End of the Tutor<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/f-35-lightning-ii\/\">F-35 Lightning II in the Aircraft Encyclopedia<\/a><\/p><\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AR-1 flew from Fort Worth in full RCAF markings on 23 September. Lockheed said nothing, the RCAF said nothing, and Ottawa said nothing at all.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":24405278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[664,670],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24405777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military-aviation","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Canada&#039;s First F-35 Flies at Fort Worth | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Canada&#039;s first F-35A, AR-1, made its maiden flight on 23 September 2026 in full RCAF markings. 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