Spain scraps plan to buy US F-35 combat aircraft

Italian Air Force and Italian Navy F-35B STOVL combat aircraft.

Spain appears to have backtracked on its purchase of Lockheed Martin F-35 advanced fighter jets, according to a report yesterday by the Spanish newspaper El País, citing government sources who requested anonymity.

The Spanish government had allocated €6.25 billion ($7.24 billion) in the 2023 budget to initiate the purchase of 50 F-35 fighter jets (25 F-35As for the Air Force and 25 F-35Bs for the Navy).

The change in plan is believed to be motivated by Spain's desire to prioritize investments in European military products, such as the Future Combat Air System (FCAS), which Madrid shares with Paris and Berlin.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's decision may also be influenced by his poor relationship with the Trump Administration, which was evident at the recent NATO summit in The Hague, where he refused to accept Trump's military spending cap of 5% of GDP. He confirmed his intention to stick to NATO's current target of 2%.

Spain aims to prioritize its national aerospace industry while pursuing its plan for European strategic autonomy. The Spanish Air Force (Ejercito de Aire) will receive 45 new Eurofighter Typhoons, ordered in two batches of 20 and 25 jets under the Halcon program. These will replace part of the fleet of 81 Boeing EF/A-18s (69 single-seaters and 12 two-seaters), which will be phased out by 2035. The decision to drop the F-35 could lead Madrid to order additional Typhoons, given that the FCAS will not enter service before 2040.

The Spanish Navy (Armada) will be the one to be most penalized by this choice since the F-35B is the only combat aircraft in the world capable of replacing the 11 EAV-8B Harrier II Plus short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft operating from the amphibious assault ship LHD Juan Carlos I. The Spanish Harriers (leased from the US Marine Corps) are scheduled to be retired in 2030, which will lead to the Juan Carlos I losing a large combat capability and operating exclusively as a helicopter carrier.

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Written by Matteo Sanzani