OTTAWA -- The Canadian military is formally asking the defence industry to identify what companies can offer to either upgrade or replace Canada's aging fleet of tanks.
The federal government published a request for information from potential suppliers so Ottawa can analyze options available on the market and start to draw up plans for future armoured land vehicle fleets.
A Canadian Army document published last year called "Inflection Point" warns that decades of fine tuning the military for counter-insurgency and peace operations had the side-effect of creating serious gaps in the military's store of heavy arms.
The army's armoured regiment has been left with a single squadron of decades-old Leopard tanks.
Modern warfare, as demonstrated by Russia's war against Ukraine, has led to rapid advances in anti-tank drones and tank armour.
The procurement projects in the request for information are listed under "heavy direct-fire modernization," which would include tanks, recovery vehicles and combat-support vehicles, as well as "medium cavalry vehicles" for a common light-armoured vehicle fleet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 13, 2026.