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- Spain has no plans to buy US F-35 fighters, defense ministry says
Spain has no plans to buy US F-35 fighters, defense ministry says
Spain says it is fully committed to the Franco-German-Spanish FCAS fighter plane project
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![An Israeli Air Force F-35 Lightning II fighter jet performs during a graduation ceremony of Israeli Air Force pilots at the Hatzerim base in the Negev desert, near the southern city of Beersheba, on June 24, 2021.](https://cdn.i24news.tv/uploads/70/3e/19/05/2f/e8/44/80/79/54/18/73/f8/18/ea/71/703e19052fe8448079541873f818ea71.jpg?width=1000)
Spain has no plans to buy F-35 fighter planes from the United States and remains committed to the European FCAS fighter program, a defense ministry spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
A report on November 4 in the French business magazine Challenges, citing an analyst at the defense specialist magazine Jane's, suggested Spain may be interested in buying the F-35 fighter from the United States.
However, Spain said it was fully committed to the Franco-German-Spanish Future Combat Air System (FCAS) fighter plane project.
"The Spanish government has no budget to enter into any other jet project in addition to the one that is already in place. We rule out entering the F-35 project. Our investment commitment is in the FCAS," the defense ministry spokeswoman told Reuters.
The F-35 is currently in use by 13 countries. There are eight international program partners, the US, United Kingdom, Italy, Netherlands, Australia, Norway, Denmark and Canada.
Six Foreign Military Sales customers are also procuring and operating the F-35, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Poland, Belgium and Singapore, according to Lockheed Martin’s website.
The F-35 was also going to be sold to Turkey, but it was removed from the program in 2019 after it acquired Russian S-400 missile defense systems.