US President Donald Trump said that the United States will sell F-35 stealth fighter jets to India. Interestingly, the stealth fighters are participating in the Aero India airshow in Bangalore.
“Starting this year, we will be increasing military sales to India by many billions of dollars. We are also paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F35, Stealth fighters,” Trump said.
Long 🧵: Defence high on agenda in the talks between PM Modi & President Trump.
We’ll be increasing military sales to India by many billions of dollars… We’re also paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F-35 stealth fighters: Trump pic.twitter.com/itov6RUZnO
— Dinakar Peri (@dperi84) February 14, 2025
Trump also said the countries had struck an agreement that includes India importing more U.S. oil and gas to shrink the trade deficit between the two countries.
The F-35 offer comes as Russia has expressed interest in arming India with Su-57 stealth fighters and helping India with an indigenous AMCA program.
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lighting II:
The F-35 is a single-seat, single-engine, all-weather, stealth multirole combat aircraft designed for air superiority and strike mission. It also has electronic warfare and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities.
Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems are the principal partners in the program with Lockheed Martin. The three main variants are the conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) F-35 A, the short take-off and vertical-landing (STOVL) F-35B, and the carrier-based (CV/CATOBAR) F-35C. The aircraft won the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program competition in 2001.
Mostly funded by the US, other financial contributors included the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Italy, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Turkey. Turkey was excluded after it procured the Russian S-400 air defense system. The UK was the only Tier 1 partner.
The technology demonstrator X-35A first flew in October 2000, and the F-35 prototype aircraft first flew in 2006. The F-35B entered service with the US Marine Corps in July 2015, the US Air Force F-35A in August 2016, and the US Navy F-35C in February 2019.
The very extensive initial flight test phase was completed in April 2018. The US proposes to buy around 2,500 F-35s through 2044 and operate till 2070.
Weapons Platform:
The aircraft has two internal weapons bays with two weapons stations each.
For non-stealthy missions, it can use six external weapons stations. The carrying capacity is 2,600 kg on internal hardpoints and 6,800 kg on external hardpoints, totaling 8,400 kg.
These can carry combinations of the latest American stand-off weapons and air-to-air missiles. The internal stations can carry the AIM-120 AMRAAM and, eventually, the AIM-260 JATM. The aircraft also carries chaffs, flares, and towed decoys.
A weapon rack enabling the internal outboard station to carry two AIM-120s is being developed. In Block 4, it will increase the internal air-to-air payload to six missiles.
It is the only 5th-gen fighter that is Nuclear capable. Hypersonic missiles and direct energy weapons are being considered as future upgrades.
Aircraft related problems:
The program did witness scrutiny and criticism for bloating costs, software glitches, and delayed deliveries. The three variants share just 25 percent of their parts, far below the anticipated commonality of 70 percent, thus adding program cost. At around $100 million per aircraft, the F-35 is expensive.
In 2001, the program was expected to cost about $200 billion to acquire in base-year 2002 dollars. By 2017, delays and cost overruns had pushed the F-35 program’s expected acquisition costs to US$406.5 billion, with the total lifetime cost, including operations and maintenance (until 2070), to US$1.5 trillion in then-year dollars. Full-rate production began only in 2023.
It is also maintenance-intensive. The F-35A’s cost per flight hour (CPFH) was $35,000 in 2019, compared to US$17,716 for the A-10 and US$22,514 for the F-16C. Lockheed Martin hopes to reduce it to US$25,000 by 2025. Many question the idea of using the same basic design to create many variants, thus making compromises.
It also meant putting all your eggs in a single basket. There was no backup, and delays and costs had to be lived with. Some analysts believe it is much less reliable at a 69 percent readiness rate than the much lighter and cheaper F-16 it was meant to replace.
Operating Nations:
The militaries of Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, South Korea, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States currently operate F35s.
Taiwan was once keen to acquire F-35s. However, the US was reluctant to sell because of the risk of compromising classified data if the Chinese military officials got access to the aircraft.
The US turned down Thailand’s desire to buy 8 to 12 aircraft in May 2023 and offered F-16 Block 70/72 Viper and F-15E Strike Eagle fighters instead.
F-35 sales to Turkey, a founding partner in the program, were banned after it bought the Russian S-400 air defense system.
The United Arab Emirates initially wanted to purchase F-35s but later withdrew as it was not ready to agree to the additional terms imposed by the US.
Also Read: “Want to Win? Learn to Play Without Bumrah, Says Harbhajan”
