BErlin – Questions go up in Canada and Europe to find out if purchases of large high -end American weapons, such as the F -35, Fricter Fighter, are still a judicious strategic choice for Western countries worried about their investment in American defense technology.
In less than two months, US President Donald Trump has upset decades of American foreign policy. He left NATO members wondering if the United States will honor the alliance’s commitment to defend itself if other European countries are attacked by Russia. He also made repeated openings in Russia and suspended most American foreign aid.
And Pete Hegseth, Trump’s defense secretary, said last month that a rally of European defense ministers “that net strategic realities” prevent the United States from being mainly focused on the security of Europe.
This could have an impact on foreign sales of the F-35 produced by Lockheed Martin and other advanced American advances such as the F-16. While the war in Ukraine continues in its fourth year, it has become clear that the members of Eastern European NATO still have vast arms stores in the Soviet era in their stocks which were not interoperable with Western weapons. A long -term plan to obtain all NATO on similar platforms – by replacing the ancient jets of the Soviet era with Western jets, in particular the F -16 and, in some cases, the F -35 – has grown.
Some of the NATO countries now repent the defense of their defense with American manufacturing systems and potentially envisage European planes such as Saab Gripen, the Eurofighter and Dassault Rafale typhoon instead.
Angry an F-35 partner
In Canada, where Trump launched a trade war and threatened economic coercion to make it the 51st American state, the new Prime Minister Mark Carney asked the Minister of Defense Bill Blair to examine his purchase of F-35. Canada was a partner in the United States in the development of the F-35.
Blair will see if there are other options “given the evolution of the environment,” said a defense spokesperson.
Carney announced on Tuesday a radar purchase in Australia of a Canadian value of $ 6 billion ($ 4.2 billion). The exaggerated radar system will offer early alert radar coverage of Canadian states and Arctic units, and officials said it would have a smaller imprint than a similar American system.
And in Portugal, the outgoing Minister of Defense said in an interview with a Portuguese newspaper published last week that the “recent positions” taken by the United States forced a rethinking to the purchase of F-35 because the United States has become unpredictable. Portugal is considering various options to replace its F-16s.
“You are not just a plane, you buy a relationship with the United States,” said Winslow T. Wheeler, a long-standing government watchdog that has spent 30 years in the US Congress to work for Democrats and Republicans on national security and defense issues. “People in the past have not only welcomed but dreamed of this kind of relationship.”
The Netherlands and Norway have expressed recent support for the F-35 program in media comments.
“The F-35 is a vital component of our national defense capacity, and cooperation and dialogue with the United States continue to support the development and use of this high-end platform,” said the secretary of the Norwegian state, Andreas Flåm, in a statement. “We expect this constructive cooperation to continue in the future.”
F-35 and a “killing switch”
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter was designed to combine furtive, handy capacities and attacks on a single plane. Each jet costs around $ 85 million (78 million euros), and the price reaches $ 100 million (91 million euros) to $ 150 million (137 million euros) when infrastructure and spare parts are included. About 1,100 have been produced to date for 16 military services around the world.
The F-35B, a variant that can take off vertically ship terraces, is the last model. It is the most expensive weapon system that the United States has ever produced, with estimated lifetime costs which should now exceed $ 1.7 billion. One of the ways that the program was due to reducing these costs has been to sell more planes to international customers.
But the recent break of the Trump administration on the supply of intelligence to Ukraine to force the country to negotiate with Russia has fueled the fears that the United States has similar means of constraining them in a future fight-such as integrating a hypothetical “Kill Switch” in the millions of programming lines of the F-35.
In a press release, the joint office of the Pentagon F-35 Lightning II vehemently rejected any idea that the jets sold to the allies could be disabled.
“There is no change in death. The F-35 has been designed, developed and continued to be exploited and supported as a joint / coalition platform, based on solid partnerships with American allies and partner nations around the world,” the office said in a statement. “The strength of the F-35 program lies in its global partnership, and we remain determined to provide all users with full functionality and support they need.”
But this is not the only way to have an impact on the program of an ally, said Wheeler. The F-35 requires constant technological upgrades controlled by the United States to operate in combat. If a relationship with the United States has embittered and updates were delayed, it could make a throw, or even a fleet, inoperable, he said.
Lockheed Martin, in a statement on Tuesday, said that the company was determined to help its customers “strengthen their power and safety with the F-35”.
“As part of our government contracts, we deliver all the system infrastructure and the data required for all F-35 customers to support the plane,” said the defense entrepreneur. “We remain determined to provide affordable and reliable maintenance services to our customers who allow them to finish their missions and go home safely.”
European jet alternatives
Saab Gripen, Typhoon Eurofighter and Dassault Rafale could see an increase in sales if other countries decide to give up their F-35 purchases. But none of them has the furtive capacities of the F-35.
The Swedish Saab Gripen is used by the soldiers of Sweden, the Czech Republic, Hungary, South Africa, Brazil and Thailand. The conventional wisdom of the defense industry says that it is much cheaper than the F-35, said Wheeler.
The Eurofighter typhoon, a Swing royalty fighting aircraft, is one of the British, German, Spanish and Italian forces. It is manufactured by a consortium of defense companies: Airbus, Bae Systems and Leonardo.
The Dassault Rafale twin fighter built by Frenchault is used by the French navy and the French air and spatial force. The governments of Egypt, India, Qatar, Greece, Croatia, the United Arab Emirates, Serbia and Indonesia have all signed contracts for gusts.
David Jordan, lecturer in defense studies at King’s College in London and co -director of the Freeman Air and Space Institute, said that before European leaders thought it was easier and more profitable to rely on the American defense industry – and American taxpayers – to access advanced weapons. But the move of the Trump administration of Europe could be the turn, said Jordan.
He would force the continent to pool his money and resources – often a collision point among countries – in research and development, manufacturing and logistics, but Jordan said that was possible in the five to 10 years.
“European defense industry is more than capable of building what it needs,” said Jordan.
French President Emmanuel Macron is already accelerating his efforts to persuade the French Allies to move on to European Defense Arms and Systems of Arms, including Rafale fighters built in French.
“Those who buy the F-35 should be offered the burst. This is how we are going to increase the pace,” the Midi dispatch said on Friday at a press conference on Friday to journalists from the French regional newspapers.
If Europeans increased their production, this would greatly affect the low lines of Lockheed Martin and other American defense companies. Jordan said US defense entrepreneurs are likely to be concerned about Trump’s next decision.
“When they say” we don’t like it, we are talking about rising billions of dollars here “, said Jordan.
The White House did not respond to a request for comments on Tuesday.
—COPP reported to Washington. The screenwriters of the AP John Leicester in Paris and Jill Lawless and Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.