Rearmament in NATO and the EU
The fifth generation of the world’s combat fleet continues to grow rapidly. In Europe alone there will be more than 600 F-35s operating by 2034
One of the indirect effects of the Ukraine war started by Vladimir Putin is the concern of the Eastern European countries about their security in fear of possible Russian aggression. This situation has generated an innovation in several members of the European Union and NATO that has led them to start the process to repair and strengthen their air force with the fifth generation F-35. Sales of the fighter manufactured by the American company Lockheed Martin skyrocketed in just one year.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, five countries have committed to selling F-35s. It’s the exact opposite of the effect that Putin probably intended when he launched the invasion of Ukraine, the general said James Hecker commander of the US Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces in Africa. These countries are: Germany, Canada, Finland, Switzerland and the Czech Republic. This poster is still in the internal approval process. In some cases, offers and acceptance letters were signed in 2022, while Canada announced a formal agreement in January. The reason they all buy F-35 jets is to replace the aging fighter jet fleet amid rising tensions over the war in Ukraine.
Germany announced in 2022 that it will buy 35 F-35 squadrons as old aircraft Pollucius. Canada, whose government is led by a prime minister who promised in the past that he would never buy this plane if he came to power, has recently announced the purchase of 80 fifth-generation aircraft.
Switzerland signed in November the acquisition of 36 F-35A fighter jets between 2027 and 2030 and They will replace the current fleet of F/A-18 Hawks and F-5 Tigers. Switzerland’s integration into the 5th Generation F-35 Lightning II Program has put an end to a heated debate in the country, with the country’s population against it, where a. reference to nationals about the purchase of these aircraft.
F-35 customers in Europe include Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and the United Kingdom. Germany, Greece, Switzerland have also joined this list and it is possible that the Czech Republic will be next. The latter wants to replace its Saab JAS 39 Gripens with F-35s, making the country the second Eastern European partner, after Poland, to order the Martin Lockheed fighter.
The choice of the F-35 has to do in some cases with the fact that several NATO and EU countries already have the F-35 in their inventory, which increases the cooperation capacity and facilitates cost reductions.
The avalanche of purchases of this plane makes manufacturers think that by 2034 there will be more than 600 units of the F-35 operating in Europe, General Hecker said, and “of those 600, only about 50 will be American, so more than 90 percent will be our allies and partners.”
For NATO, the Atlantic Fleet of F-35 will be increased by the upcoming accession of Finland and Sweden to the Atlantic Alliance. Sweden has the best Gripen E/F air force and Finland will add 64 F-35s that it wants to buy from Lockheed Martin to replace its aging fleet of 57 F-18 Hornets powered by the American firm McDonnell. Douglas in 1992 after the fall of the Soviet Union.
for his partThe US Air Force has ordered 48 F-35As by 2024. It currently has about 350 F-35s in its inventory and plans to buy a total of 1,763. It should be said that most of the US orders were placed between 2016 and 2018, when Washington’s geopolitical competition with China and Russia increased and the United States felt the urgent need to innovate. A similar thing happened with the war in Ukraine. The fear of Russia leads the neighboring countries to reconsider, in some cases with the purchase of 35 f.
According to recent plans, the US Air Force plans to operate a large number of F-35 future fighters with NGAD, a top-secret Pentagon program that aims to transform the future of air combat.
Despite the engine problems revealed, Lockheed Martin has not stopped increasing sales of this fifth-generation fighter. The F-22 Raptor is the complete opposite of a stealth fighter. In 2021, Lockheed Martin set a goal of building and delivering 196 F-35s in one year, more than the number of F 22s ever built. By 2022, the company has delivered more than 160 F-35s.
