Spain has shelved plans to purchase F-35 fighter aircraft, Spanish newspaper El País reported today.
Preliminary contacts for the purchase of the fifth-generation American stealth fighters have been suspended “indefinitely” and the government will seek European alternatives like the Eurofighter or the upcoming Future Combat Air System, the paper reported.
“The Spanish option involves the current Eurofighter and the FCAS in the future,” the Spanish defense ministry told POLITICO.
Spain’s decision would be a major setback for planemaker Lockheed Martin, as Madrid issued a non-binding request for information on the F-35 in 2017.
Spain’s 2023 budget included an initial allocation of €6.25 billion to replace navy and air force aircraft.
The Spanish navy plans to decommission its Harrier AV8B fighters by 2030 and has expressed interest in replacing them with naval version F-35B models, already purchased by the United States and Italy.
The air force also considered the F-35A model as a temporary solution to replace its McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornets while awaiting the FCAS.
Madrid’s move could further heat up tensions between Spain and the United States, as Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is a vocal critic of NATO’s new defense spending goal of 5 percent of GDP, pushed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
This article has been updated.
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