Ear Europe instead of American. According to the Daily El País de Madrid, which quotes sources from the Spanish Government, the government of the left of Pedro Sánchez has definitely “” definitely “buying F-35 combat aircraft by Lockheed Martin, because he considers that such transaction would be” incompatible “with his decision to dedicate 85% of the additional funds released to European teams.
Spain, which plans to acquire several dozen combat aircraft, has opted for European devices, either Eurofighter or the next air combat system (SCAF), to the detriment of US F-35, the Spanish Ministry of Defense said Wednesday.
In its 2023 budget, Spain had planned a first amount of 6.25 billion euros to replace the AV-8B Harrier of the Navy and Hornet F/A-18 of the Air Force.
The specialized British publication Janes, usually very well informed, said last year that Madrid planned to order 50 F-35 units, a plane made by the American firm Lockheed Martin.
Spend more, spend European
This election shown in European devices has the potential to further increase current tensions between Washington and Madrid, which suffered the refusal of Pedro Sánchez, during the last NATO summit, to undertake the military spending of Spain to 5% of GDP, as US President Donald Trump demanded that the members of the Alliance.
Pedro Sánchez had announced shortly before Spain would carry its 2% defense budget this year.
Three European countries (Germany, Spain and France) are involved in the SCAF, a very ambitious project that must be developed by Dassault Aviation, Airbus and the Spanish company Indra Systems. The program regularly crosses the turbulence areas, due to the differences related to governance and industrial distribution, which do not cease to occur in the design of armament programs for several nations.
Source: BFM TV
