*Farnborough, England : *
Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jet is arriving in growing numbers inEurope, and is poised to play a much broader role in missile defence andother warfare plans than conventional fighters, according to U.S. andEuropean officials.
After years of technical challenges and programme delays, the F-35, theworld’s most expensive arms programme, is rapidly gaining a foothold in theUnited States and Europe.
The new warplane’s high-end sensors will give it a bigger role across alldomains of war than previous fighter planes, including in missile defence,said General Tod Wolters, the top commander of U.S. and NATO air forces inEurope.
Norway, Britain and Italy will have received 40 F-35s in Europe by the endof the year, with the first Dutch jets to arrive next year, and the firstU.S. jets in fiscal year 2021.
Israel in May became the first country to use the stealth fighter in combat.
“It’s a game-changing system,” Wolters told Reuters in an interview beforethe Farnborough Airshow. “We’re in the process of integrating the F-35 intothe complete environment, not just the airspace.”
He said buyer countries were working “feverishly” to ensure the jets couldcommunicate with other aircraft and the military commands in charge ofoperations on land, at sea and in space, to take full advantage of itscapabilities.Advertisement
To aid that process, the U.S. Air Force has set up a new division at itsEuropean headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, and senior officials fromEuropean user nations will also hold their annual meeting early September,U.S. Air Force officials said.
President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials have criticised the F-35programme for delays and cost overruns, but the price per jet has steadilydeclined as production increased.Advertisement
A preliminary new U.S. deal to buy 141 planes lowers the price of theF-35A, the most common version of the jet, to about $89 million, downaround 6 percent from the last deal struck in February 2017, sourcesfamiliar with the talks said.
Last December, the British parliament’s Defence Committee raised questionsabout the procurement of the F-35 fighter jets that will eventually operatefrom two new aircraft carriers, criticising the Ministry of Defence for an”unacceptable lack of transparency” about the programme.