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Israel received its first F-35 fighter jet Wednesday in a deal that the Defence Department’s former procurement chief says could provide a blueprint for Canada to get even more work for its aerospace companies.

Canada is a partner in the F-35 program and has pumped in hundreds of millions of dollars into the project in exchange for domestic companies being allowed to bid on work on the stealth fighter. But there are no stipulations that Canadian firms are guaranteed to receive such work.

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Israel, however, has bypassed that arrangement and cut a deal for its companies to build billions of dollars worth of parts for the F-35 even though it never invested in the plane.

It has ordered 33 F-35A variants, the type of aircraft that Canada was originally interested in. The first Israeli plane rolled off the assembly line in Texas Wednesday and is expected to be Israel by December.

The Israeli deal could provide the Liberal government with a blueprint on replacing Canada’s aging CF-18s while receiving even more industrial benefits in an open competition, says Alan Williams, former procurement chief for the Department of National Defence.