The eight Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II originally intended for Turkey will be bought by the U.S. for $ 862 million, according to the press service of the Pentagon.

Follow Air Recognition on Google News at this link

May 2018. First flight of the first F-35A Lightning II manufactured for the Turkish Air Force (Picture source: Lockheed Martin)

The U.S. DoD stated that the acquisition of the eight F-35s already manufactured for Turkey among the 100 ordered is implemented as part of a modification of the contract already signed with Lockheed Martin. The manufacturer will make the necessary changes to adapt these aircraft to the US Air Force requirements.

In February 2019, NATO asked Belgium to buy an extra 14 F-35 fighter jets on top of the 34 units ordered to carry on a larger number of missions but Defense minister Philippe Goffin replied that no budget for additional aircraft was available (no change since then, even to expect). A strange NATO dream, definitely. And a few months ago, there was a proposal made to the Belgian Ministry of Defense to buy these Turkish F-35As. The Belgians kindly declined this uninteresting proposal, as their F-35As will be delivered in the more modern Block 4 configuration.