Explainer
Donald Trump confirmed on Tuesday the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia. For years, Washington avoided selling this type of advanced weaponry to other countries in the Middle East to ensure that Israel maintained military superiority.
The White House’s announcement came despite concerns from industry analysts and experts and from the Republican Trump Administration itself about whether China, Riyadh’s main trading partner, could gain access to that coveted technology.
Each of those aircraft had in 2023 an estimated value of 77 million dollars (66.5 million euros), according to the Congress of the United States of America (USA), This is the Pentagon’s most expensive program ever.
Until now, the The US was reluctant to sell F-35s to other Middle Eastern nationstherefore committing to “qualitative military advantage” of Israel, the only country in the region that operates this model.
Here’s what is known about the F-35, fifth-generation US fighter planes:
Debut in the Middle East by Israel
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) used F-35s in the 12-day war against Iranin June, and there are 19 other countries in the world, which already have this type of fighter plane or have signed agreements to purchase it.
The first example of the F-35 Lightning supersonic stealth multirole fighter rolled off the assembly line in Fort Worth, Texas, almost 20 years ago.
More than 1,200 units have been built so far, cith the manufacturer Lockheed Martin to declare that there are more than 300,000 jobs linked to the F-35, thanks to a production chain spread across the 50 North American states.
Used by the Air Force, Navy and ‘Marines’, desired by all
The ‘Marines’ (equivalent to Marines, amphibious specialty) used F-35s against enemy targets in Afghanistan, while the Italian Air Force used these aircraft during the Estonian airspace violation incident in September, and the subsequent response by the Atlantic Alliance.
However, the fighter with a short nose and double fin on the tail has been criticized since the design phase, due to slippage, high price and too many variants. For example, the US Navy launches them from aircraft carriers, while the version delivered to the ‘Marines’ takes off vertically, like a helicopter.
A China was accused of already holding some information — although outdated – about the F-35s and other US military programs, which he accessed through cyberattacks on the Pentagon, in a 2013 report by the North American Defense Scientific Council.
A military ‘toy’ worth 1.73 billion euros
According to official estimates, the US Department of Defense expects to spend more than two billion dollars (1.74 billion euros) to operate, maintain and modernize 2,470 units of this model, over an expected life cycle of 77 years. The same report described that Lockheed-Martin delivered 110 of these planes in 2024, all beyond the agreed deadline, with average delays of 238 days. In 2023, the average delay was 61 days in delivery.
In terms of readiness, the F-35s also deserve criticism, since this criterion that evaluates the rate at which the aircraft performs assigned missions is around 55%, well below the initial objectives of the program designed in 1990.
The director of the Stimson Center’s National Security Reform Program stated that the F-35 Lightning program turned out to be a failure.
