Franco-Canadian Industrial Defence Cooperation: Current Situation and Development Prospects​

By Gaspard Schnitzler and Erik Vouvalidis, RAS, NSA

February 4th 2025

 

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Summary

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On September 26, 2024, France and Canada signed a joint declaration providing for a strengthened partnership in defence and security. While Franco-Canadian defence cooperation has gained momentum in recent years at the political-military level, it remains relatively underdeveloped at the industrial level. Indeed, with the exception of a few emblematic contracts, acquisitions of French equipment by the Canadian armed forces and of Canadian equipment by French arms remain limited. This situation can be explained by Canada’s close military ties with the United States, which means that priority is given to the acquisition of American equipment. While this proximity to the US defence industry is an impediment to defence industry cooperation, there are also opportunities for cooperation between French defence manufacturers. Indeed, the major modernization process currently underway in the Canadian armed forces could lead to closer ties in the coming years, particularly in the following areas:

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• Co-building and operating new-generation submarines by establishing a strategic partnership to replace Canada’s Victoria-class submarines (as part of the CPSP program) to secure sea lanes in the Arctic and North Atlantic.

• Co-construction and use of ice-breaking vessels, by extending to France the trilateral ICE Pact, launched in July 2024 by Canada, the United States and Finland.

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This policy report, published by the Network for Strategic Analysis (RAS-NSA), is part of the Personnalités d'Avenir France Canada program on defense issues, 2024 edition, organized by the FDS and the France-Canada Association, with the support of the Department of National Defence of Canada’s Mobilizing Insights in Defence and Security (MINDS) program and the DGRIS (Directorate General for International Relations and Strategy, French Ministry of the Armed Forces).